


Say Something

by Marie_fandomtrashwhore



Category: BBC Sherlock, Sherlock - Fandom, Sherlock Holmes - fandom
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-05-16
Updated: 2019-05-05
Packaged: 2019-05-07 20:45:11
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 12
Words: 50,965
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14679165
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Marie_fandomtrashwhore/pseuds/Marie_fandomtrashwhore
Summary: Kate is the new pathologist and is also new in London. She still needs a place to live and moves in with John and Sherlock.She's a mistery to Sherlock and drives him crazy.What's going to happen between the two of them? What are Kate's secrets?Trailer:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NusxTNSPEdcStarts between S01E02 and S01E3.





	1. The New Pathologist

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NusxTNSPEdc

John and Sherlock were rushing towards the pathology, because Lestrade had asked them to check out the corpse of a young woman who had been killed yesterday, and that wasn't something Sherlock let himself tell twice. He pushes the huge doors open and they storm inside.

"What can you tell us about the corpse, Molly?" Sherlock says rushing straight towards the corpse on the table, clearly paying no attention to his surroundings.  
When he gets no answer he tears his eyes off the corpse and starts to look around, searching for any sign of Molly. Finally he spots a young woman who is standing beside another corpse, but that woman was definitely not Molly and was waving at him with her gloved hand and an unimpressed expression.John has also already noticed her and walks towards her, offering her his hand.  
"Oh, good morning. I'm Doctor John Watson, excuse me but where can we find Molly Hooper?"  
"I'm Kate Taylor, sadly Molly Hooper no longer works here..." she says shaking John's hand with a kind smile.  
Sherlock looks closely at Kate, trying to analyze her.

strange accent which she covers very well -> not originally from England -> new in this pathology -> new in London -> wants a fresh start -> hides something from her past-> bad past-> but what?!

Sherlock hesitates. He can't see more?! What? Why?! It's the first time that this is happening.  
Even John could see those simple things!

John quickly throws a warning look at Sherlock while shaking Kate's hand and gave her a short smile. "Oh, do you know why? She was a friend of ours."  
"As far as I know she got a better job offer elsewhere, but she told me that you would come to see the new corpse."  
"Why didn't she tell us? We definitely need to call her later! And you are now the new pathologist I suppose?" John says frowning in confusion but then giving her a smile.  
She nods and sends a short unsure look towards Sherlock.  
John follows her gaze, rolls his eyes and sighs. "Ok, I'm sick of it. Kate, this is...""Sherlock Holmes, Consulting detective, the only one." Sherlock interrupts John and stretches out his hand while giving her an exaggerated smile to please John and wipe that annoying expression off his face.

"Okay?" Kate says after an awkward moment of silence and lets his hand go.  
John turns to Sherlock with a faked worried expression. „What? You aren't analyzing the shit out of her till she breaks down crying? Sherlock, I'm proud of you!"  
Sherlock rolls his eyes and ignores John while walking silently towards the corpse.  
John, who is a little confused, sits down on a small chair in the corner of the room, where he always waits until Sherlock was done with whatever he was doing, only getting up sometimes when Sherlock needed his expert opinion.  
John's eyes move back to Kate who was standing in the middle of the room looking a bit lost.

"This will take some time, its best if you sit down till he's done."  
Kate smiles thankfully and sits down on the chair next to John.  
"Are you new in London or England in general? You have some sort of an accent." John asks her in attempt to start a conversation, trying to make their waiting at least a little bit more exciting.  
"Well..." She thinks for a moment and then smiles at John. "...actually yes. Yes, I'm not from around here originally."  
"So you just moved here or did you already live here for some time?" John sounded as if he actually cares and so Kate continued telling her story.  
"I was accepted here a week ago and moved to the UK within two days. That wasn't a problem, but to find a cheap and good apartment in London in such a short time is impossible. I know no one here, so I'm living in a cheap and disgusting hotel right now."  
"That's what happened to me when I came back from war," John nods knowingly reminding the time he came back "but then an old friend of mine introduced me to Sherlock and now...here we are."  
"So....you two are a couple then?" Kate half questions after looking between John and Sherlock, but then getting worried by the expression on John's face "not that I would care. I have no problem with any sexuality! I'm also interested in women and men.""No! We're not a couple. I'm not gay! We're just flatmates and help each other. Jesus why does everyone thinks we're gay?!"  
"I'm sorry...I just...."  
John's face softens. „It’s okay, I'm sorry for how I reacted. Just so you know, I also don't have a problem with...anything."  
She gives him an understanding smile. „So...you're both single then?"  
"Yes, why?” John askes looking puzzled.  
"That's the answer to your previous question then. Handsome men are either taken or gay."  
John starts to laugh and Kate joins him.

After they spend some time in quiet just watching Sherlock moving around the table and searching through Kate's documents to the corpse, John turns towards her again an idea written on his face.  
"Maybe you could live with us, we have a room available?"  
"Are you serious? I mean...we only know each other for like...five minutes?" Kate gasps."Believe me, you don't know Sherlock, he's the biggest pain in the ass and I can handle him as a flatmate. I think I even know more about you by now than about Sherlock." John laughs and then turns toward Sherlock again. "We can ask him when he comes out from his mind palace."  
Kate frowns at John and then also looks at Sherlock. “His what?"  
John signs and looks back at her hesitating.  
"It's hard to explain. Sherlock looks at someone and knows literally everything because he has plenty of information stored up in his head...I don't even understand it myself... We end up in a bunch of strange situation because of him most of the time, cause he doesn't know when to keep his mouth shut."  
Kate looks down at her hands folded in her lap."Mh..."  
"What?" John frowns.  
"It's just...I don't want a stranger to know my most personal things...I have a few issues, you know?"  
"I understand. He often hurts people by exhibiting their deepest secrets, feelings or memories, but he doesn't want to. He has no idea of human feelings."  
"We have to find the weapon!" Sherlock interrupts them before Kate can response.  
Kate clears her throat."Mr. Holmes?"He turns to them as she picks something up from the table beside them and waves at Sherlock with a Screwdriver, smirking that Sherlock missed that fact.  
He looks a bit confused and rips it out of Kate's hands before she can complain.  
"Oh. Of course...that makes sense!" he states while studying the screwdriver "We need to talk with the employer of the dead immediately. JOHN!" with that he's already on his way out.  
"Wait. Just one more thing Sherlock!" John shouts while running after him with his short legs.  
Sherlock turned around. „Kate is new here and looks for an apartment. I thought she could check out or free room? We also barely knew each other when we moved together so..."  
Sherlock frowns and looks at Kate who's holding his stare. He still can't see anything interesting.  
"I play the violin late at night." Sherlock and Kate said at the same time.  
"Wait, what?" John spits out immediately.  
Kate's eyes move between John and Sherlock's faces. "Well...when I come home from work very late and need to calm down I play violin...and piano, but I couldn't bring it to London. Obviously."

John seems to have lost his voice and Sherlock thinks for a few seconds.  
"Tomorrow, 2 pm. 221b Baker Street. If you like it you can stay."  
With that Sherlock leaves and a still confused John follows him while waving Kate goodbye.

John looks at Sherlock as they sit beside each other in the cab, thinking about what just happened.  
"Why didn't you bombard her with her past and stuff?"  
"I just wasn't in the mood."  
"I may be stupid to you, but I know that you're lying."  
Sherlock signs frustrated which causes John to look at him."Fine. All I could see was the obvious...the things even you could see. Happy?""She beat THE Sherlock Holmes?" John laughs.  
Sherlock just stares out the window.   
"It embarrasses you!" He fake gasps and chuckles.  
At least John had his fun.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Feedback?


	2. 221B Baker Street

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NusxTNSPEdc

Just in time, Kate finds herself in front of a big black wooden door with the inscription '221B'.  
An older woman opens the door smiling at her in the nicest way anyone ever did.  
"Hello darling, how can I help you?"  
"Hello, I am looking for Sherlock Holmes and John Watson. Do they live here? Maybe I got the wrong address?!"Kate hesitates.  
"Oh, you must be the new roommate! I own the house, Martha Hudson." She explains while offering Kate her hand. Kate shakes her hand. "I'm Kate Taylor, nice to meet you! I'm not the new roommate yet, I'm just here to inspect the apartment."  
"I think Sherlock is the bigger problem...not the condition of the apartment." Mrs. Hudson laughs while leading Kate upstairs.Kate just smiles at her and Mrs. Hudson knocks on a door at the end of the stairs and John opens the door with a teacup in his other hand."Hello, Mrs. Hudson. Oh, hello Kate!"  
He lets Kate in and Mrs. Hudson walks back downstairs after telling John to be nice. 

Sherlock is laying on a dark leather couch right next to the door and is staring at the ceiling, not bothering to greet or even noticing Kate at all. Nonetheless she gave him a shy smile."Hello, Mr. Holmes!"  
Sherlock seems to be torn from his thoughts and looks at Kate. „Hello..."  
"Kate. And Sorry."  
"For what?" Sherlock frowned.  
"Disturbing you?" Kate says as if it was obvious.  
Sherlock grumbles and turns away from her to face the wall.

"Feel free to look around." John says as he sits down in one of two huge leather armchairs.  
Slowly Kate starts moving through the small flat.  
"It's very scientific in here!"  
"Yes, you know....that's how it is living with Sherlock." John says turning his head towards the kitchen where Kate was currently checking out some of Sherlock’s various experiments. "Um... yes that's Sherlock's experiments, we often go out to eat. IF Sherlock eats at all. I'm sure we could make some space for you in the kitchen."  
"I can't cook anyway.” She shrugs and keeps looking around "I actually think it's really exciting, is...is that an eye in the coffee machine?"  
"Yes, that's an eye." she suddenly hears Sherlock’s voice right beside her and jumps a little.  
He probably wants to prevent her from breaking anything, which didn't stop Kate to take a closer look on the eye. „Amazing."  
"It's disgusting." John yelled from the living room.  
"I've seen worse." She just shrugs.  
She feels Sherlock staring holes in the side of her head but before she can think any further John interrupts her thoughts.  
"Let me show you the bathroom."  
Kate follows him to the door next to the kitchen.  
"It isn't much, but we handle it really well with two persons...a third one shouldn't be a problem I think."  
"John spends his most weekends somewhere else anyway." Sherlock states, suddenly by their side again.  
While Kate started to laugh about John's face, John seems rather embarrassed and turns to walk to the next door and opens it. "That would be your room."  
He lets Kate step inside first. The room was full of bookshelves, a bed and decorated just like the other rooms.  
"Who owns all these books?" she says while letting her fingers slide over some books in awe.  
"Sherlock. If you don't want them we could move them elsewhere." John says giving a critical look at the number of books, probably thinking of where else they could fit in that small flat.  
"No, it's ok. I love them!"

Short after they walk back into the living room and John takes place in the same armchair as before and Kate flops down in the one opposite of him.  
"And Kate, what do you say?" John smiles at her.  
Sherlock stares at his beloved armchair, now invaded by Kate. "Get out of my seat."  
"Excuse me?" Kate gasps.  
"My armchair. You're sitting in it."  
"Sorry. Didn't know guests are supposed to stand here." She says getting up while John is rolling his eyes.  
Sherlock sits down in his chair, picks up a newspaper from a little table and starts to read it.  
"So...Kate?" John tries again.  
"John come on, she'll say yes anyway..." Sherlock states without stopping reading.  
"I could still say no?" Kate points out in a challenging tone.Sherlock finally looks up from his newspaper, but not setting it down. John gives him an angry look for being about to ruin this.  
"Why should you? It's obvious that you need an apartment desperately and this is the best and cheapest option you'll get."  
"I could say no to proof that you’re not always right Mr. Holmes." Kate shrugs, giving him an unimpressed look.  
John looks a little bit confused and Sherlock and Kate just keep staring at each other in silence.  
Suddenly Kate starts to laugh and looks at John who joins her. Sherlock just went back to reading his newspaper.  
"I really love the apartment!" Kate tells John to finally answer his question.  
"Well, it's full with Sherlock's old stuff."   
"But I love old stuff. This place has character!""Nice! So...I think you could move in immediately. Right, Sherlock?"  
"Yeah, whatever." Sherlock signs probably not even listening.  
John rolls his eyes. "Well, I could call you a cab and you get all your stuff here. I suggest it isn't much since you live in a hotel room and in this time Misses Hudson will clean your room a bit. MISSES HUDSON?!"

Shortly afterward Mrs. Hudson stands in the doorway. "John, what's the matter?" "Kate is going to move in immediately, could you please clean her room till she comes back with her stuff?" John asks as he walks into the kitchen to get his phone and call a cab, not even waiting for an answer from Mrs. Hudson.  
"I'm not your housekeeper! I'm doing this for Kate because I'm glad to finally have some female support here!" She shouts after John and then turns towards Kate. "You have no idea know hard it can be with Sherlock and John. They're like an old married couple who always gets themselves in trouble."  
"I'm looking forward to it!" Kate laughs.

After some time Kate returns with a small suitcase and her violin and places everything in her room.  
As she returns to the living room, John is sitting in the same armchair as before and writes something on his laptop and Sherlock sits in the other armchair with closed eyes.  
"Ehm...hey." Kate tries to make herself noticeable.  
John's head shoots up. "Hey. Did you finish with unpacking?"  
"Yes...it wasn't much anyway. So...what are you doing besides solving cases for Lestrade?" Kate asks while sitting down on a chair beside Sherlock’s armchair, resting her head on her hand after placing her elbow somewhere between the mess on the tiny table.  
"Well, I write on my blog and search for a new job. I'm a doctor....but I have no idea what Sherlock is doing." John says gesturing at Sherlock’s current state on the armchair.  
"A blog? About your life and the cases?" She asks interested after giving Sherlock a quick glance but quickly focusing back on John.  
"Exactly! I hope it's ok if you're mentioned in here in the future?"  
"Of cause, it's going to be a pleasure doctor Watson. I actually think it's really cool, I'm going to read some of your posts this evening as a bedtime story."  
"Let's see how long you'll consider it as 'cool'."  
"He hates my blog, just ignore him." John marks out looking at Kate and not even giving Sherlock the slightest attention.  
"He's our flatmate, we shouldn't ignore him, John. Even if he clearly doesn't care and ignores us too."  
John looks at her and then at Sherlock, who tries to hide a smile and closes his eyes again, before he continued writing.

After some minutes, in which you could only hear John typing on his laptop and Sherlock's fingers tapping on his violin, which he had picked up from beside his seat, in a steady rhythm, Suddenly John stops typing and looks up, which causes Sherlock and Kate look at him.  
"Kate, why don't you show us your violin skills?" John asks.  
"I never played in front of other people."  
"We won’t judge you."  
Kate signs and stands up to get her violin. What did she have to lose? As she comes back she looks at Sherlock, who observes every movement she makes.  
"I'm going to play something if you're going to play something too." Kate says giving Sherlock that challenging look again.  
"Ok." Sherlock responses unimpressed.  
Kate begins to play her favorite play as passionate as she can, even though she's quite nervous.  
As she finishes John starts to clap and laugh. Even Sherlock looks sort of impressed, but he knows how to hide it.  
"Thank you!" Kate laughs.  
Now Sherlock gets up and adjusts his violin before he starts playing as Kate sits down in his armchair totally ignoring what he told her earlier today.  
When he finishes Kate claps enthusiastically.  
"Yeah...well, thank you. Now get out of my armchair."  
Kate stands up immediately. “Oh, right. Sorry."  
"You two should play something together sometime." John suggests.  
Kate's face lights up. "Oh yes! That would be amazing."  
"Yeah, whatever." Sherlock answers unimpressed as always.  
Before Kate can respond Sherlock groans. "John, I'm bored. Don't we really have any cases left?!"  
"No. Seems like Lestrade can handle everything by himself pretty fine." John explains him, typing again.  
"Can he ever handle something by himself?"  
"You should be thankful that he even..." Kate wants to explain but is stopped by Sherlock.  
"Shut up!" Sherlock snaps.  
"Excuse me?!"  
"Sherlock!" John snaps back.  
"I thought someone knocked."  
"Why don't you just ask? We have ears too you know?"  
Now it was Sherlock's turn to look confused.  
"And by the way. Someone did actually knock." she mocks while walking to the door.

A crying man stands in the doorway, before he can say anything Sherlock is by Kate's side and starts to deduct him. "Alcoholic, one child with whom he has no contact, divorced, two...no three dogs, two Labradors and one poodle, abusive childhood, low paid...He's searching for his poodle. BORING. BYE!"  
He shoves the man out the door and closes it immediately.  
"The poor man. Maybe he loves his dogs? Maybe they're the only good thing he has left in his life?" Kate gasps shocked.  
"He just told this man's whole life story by just looking at him and you're worried about the dog?" John says in disbelieve.  
"Yes?!"  
"Then why don't you help him?" Sherlock challenges her."That's exactly what I'm going to do!" Kate gruns, grabs her j.acked and storms out the door.  
"Wait!” John tries to stop her but she's already gone.

Two hours later Kate returns soaked wet from the rain that had started after some time.  
"Did you find him?" Sherlock chuckles ironically at her appearance, walking out of the kitchen with a teacup.  
Kate gives him an angry look and throws her wet jacked at him, but Sherlock steps aside and it hits the bottom with a loud splash. “No, but we could have with your help, but oh I forgot....that not your level."  
"You don't understand." Sherlock signs. "Yes, I know, because I'm too stupid for the big Sherlock Holmes. Forgot that too...such a stupid girl."  
John enters the living room with a helpless expression as Kate storms into her room to change into dry clothes.

When she comes back she calmed down a bit and signs."How did you know all these things?" she asks clearly addressing Sherlock.  
"I just see them. I can't help it. I look at somebody and know everything."  
"Everyone?" Kate raises her eyebrows and crosses her arms.  
"Yes." Sherlock says way to sure.  
"Then come on, analyze me."  
John bites his lip while watching them both in silence."No. John told me you don't want anyone to know about your life and your past. I...accept that?"  
"That's true but you didn't sound convincing at all and I don't think you would give a damn."  
Sherlock hesitates.  
"Maybe I'm just not in the mood?"  
"But I am. Come on, do it."  
Sherlock signs.  
"You're a pathologist from another country who's new in London, don't care what people think about you're outward appearance, are confident and you want to hide something from your past."  
"That's it? Come on," Kate huffs "even John could see that" she turns towards John for a second "...sorry John."  
"I'm used to it." John signs.  
"I know. You're the only person I can't read and it's driving me crazy." Sherlock admins and looks her straight in the eyes.  
"Good, because I don't want you to see anything!" she warns stepping closer to Sherlock "You're not as intelligent as you think Sherlock, some things cannot be seen with the eyes and as long as I don't want to you won't get to know about these things. I'm not one of your experiments and if you only let me move in because of that fact, I won't tell you any information!"  
John gave her a shocked an impressed look at the same time before leaving the living room "Well, that's going to get interesting."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Feedback?


	3. Another Holmes?!

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NusxTNSPEdc

Kate was already living with Sherlock and John for two days by now, but she barely saw them because they had been busy with a case till yesterday evening and she had to work most of the time. She didn't complain because she was still a little bit mad at Sherlock after their little fight.  
Right now she's making herself some breakfast, John was at a job interview and Sherlock was laying on the couch the whole night and was probably lost in his mind palace. John told her to just let him be before he left.

Suddenly it knocks at the front door but as Kate walks out of the kitchen to get it, Sherlock already storms down the stairs to open the door. She just shrugs and walks back into the kitchen to finish her breakfast till she hears footsteps and voices coming up to the stairs to their flat.  
"No Mycroft, I'm not going to help you!"  
"Come on Sherlock, don't be childish."As they enter the living room Kate stands there with a piece of bread in one and a tea in the other hand. "Ehm...good morning?" Kate says to make them notice her, still in her pajamas and looking hella sleepy with messy hair and all.  
Sherlock gives her a short look before focusing on the other man again, only to instantly look back at her in confusion.  
"Good morning!" the other man greets with a huge, kind of scary fake smile.  
He looks at Sherlock who is still trying to figure out how to deal with the situation.  
"Why didn't you tell me that you got yourself a toy? Mummy and Daddy will be so happy!" he mocks Sherlock playfully, still wearing that fake grin on his face.  
Kate lifts one eyebrow while she somehow manages to place her breakfast somewhere on the little table which is as always full of paperwork.  
"I'm not a toy! Mr. ...?"  
"Let it be Mycroft. Kate? Please leave us alone for a few minutes." Sherlock tries in attempt to get out of the situation.  
"Oh, that's not necessary. Don't you even want to introduce us first Sherlock?" the man suggests and gives Sherlock a look that tells him that he clearly has different plans than Sherlock for this conversation.  
"Yeah, Sherlock." Kate agrees stepping forward.  
"Mycroft, this is Kate Taylor my new flatmate and Kate, that's Mycroft Holmes....my brother." Sherlock signs.  
"Another Holmes?!" Kate states surprised while taking Mycroft’s hand to shake it.  
"I guess so, but you know...I'm the smart one." Mycroft chuckles.  
Kate laughs and Sherlock rolls his eyes.  
"SO...tell me, dearie, how did you end up in a flat with my brother?"  
"I'm the new pathologist at Scotland Yard and obviously we met."  
"Interesting!"  
"Come on Mycroft, don't act like you didn't already know that. I know she's the reason you came here today." Sherlock says annoyed.  
Before Kate can ask Sherlock turns towards her and starts to explain. "He's observing us all day and works for the British government. He probably knew everything about you before we even met."  
"I'm only doing this to keep you out of trouble." Mycroft fake smiles at Sherlock again before leaning towards Kate." And don't worry I'm not allowed to give our information to anyone."  
They look at each other for a few seconds. That means he knows then. Kate frowns.  
"Ok...that's some sort of big brother is watching you..."  
"You're ok with this?" Sherlock asks slightly confused.  
"Short deduction, he seems to have a high position in the British government, ergo I have no other choice than trust him?"  
Mycroft shrugs at Sherlock who says nothing for a few moments after looking at Mycroft.  
"Whatever...Mycroft, I told you that I'm not going to help you, so leave!"  
"Sherlock keep it down. Mycroft, don't you want to stay for a cup of tea?" Kate asks Mycroft while looking Sherlock straight in the eye.  
John who is just entering the flat smirks at Kate's provocatively look at Sherlock.  
"You can't do that." Sherlock orders while giving her a warning look.  
"Why? I live here and I can invite to tea whoever I want to." she states, taking an innocent sip of her tea.  
Mycroft sits down at the table with a triumphantly smile.  
"Wonderful!" Sherlock groans.  
John joins them, handing Mycroft a cup of tea and giving Kate a short wink.

They talk for a while, mostly about how John's job interview went, while Sherlock sits in his Armchair reading the newspaper.  
"Kate, would you like to go to dinner with me this evening?" Mycroft suddenly asks and Sherlock's head shoots up.  
"Oh, ehm well...sure, I would love to!" Kate smiled.  
"Good. I'll pick you up at 6 pm." Mycroft announces while getting up.  
"All right! See you then." Kate accepts as she escorts him to the front door.  
She waves at him when he gets in the car and drives away.  
"Why?" Sherlock is suddenly right behind her and she jumps.  
"Oh my gosh, Sherlock. You scared the shit out of me!"  
"Why?" Sherlock repeated.  
"Why what?" Kate asks back as she tries to push past Sherlock and get back upstairs.  
"Why did you invited him to stay and now go out with him?"  
"I wanted to calm your fight and he seems to be nice. I think I'm old enough to go out with whoever I want to."  
"Our fight is going on since I can remember, there's nothing to calm. He's only going out with you because he wants information about me." Sherlock says as he closed the apartment door behind him.  
"Did you only once considered, that maybe not everything is about you? Perhaps you should rather focus on improving your relationship with Mycroft than trying to stop me making friends in a new city."  
"I have nothing to do with insignificant things like relationships. Feelings are a distraction that I can't afford."  
"Everyone has feelings but some of us hide them because they're too scared to get hurt if they show them. You're one of them, Mister Holmes."  
John looks up from his laptop as Sherlock takes a step in her direction only to stand right in front of her and tower over her since he's clearly taller than Kate  
"I am not scared!"  
"We'll see." Kate mocks, also taking a step in his direction to show she's not afraid of him, before she storms off to take a shower before work.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Feedback?


	4. A 'Date' With Mycroft Holmes

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NusxTNSPEdc

Soon later, Kate leaves the shower in only her underwear while drying her hair with a towel  
"What should I wear? Do you know where Mycroft normally takes the ladies? Fancy or not? I mean he works for the government so I guess it's fancy??" she asks walking back in the living room.  
"He never takes anyone anywhere, ever." Sherlock signs annoyed not even looking up from the book he was reading.  
John looks up from his laptop and is caught off guard when he sees Kate like this.  
"Ehm...a not too fancy dress is never wrong I think?"  
Finally Sherlock also decides to look at her when he hears John's slightly surprised voice, only to stare at Kate in confusion.  
"What? Never saw a woman in underwear or a Bikini?" Kate asks them confused.  
"Well...I did." John laughs while shaking his head and looks back at his laptop.  
Sherlock hesitates and blushes a bit but he tries to hide his face behind his book and ignore Kate.  
"Oh...okay. Sorry, it won't happen again...I just thought it would be okay. But I get it."  
"No, it's ok."  
John smirks and Kate bites her lip to hold back a laugh cause Sherlock looks more helpless than one of them would have expected to be possible.   
"No...I mean..." Sherlock tried to explain himself.  
"It’s ok, I understand. Really." Kate assures him.  
She leaves to get dressed for work and when she comes back John and Sherlock are gone.

When Kate returns to 221b they were still gone and exactly at 6 pm Mycroft’s black car parks in front of the house. Kate is wearing a casual short black dress that wasn't too fancy, just like John advised her.  
As she steps out of the house the driver opens the backseat door for her. She smiles at him and thanked him. It had been ages since she had some sort of real date and now she sees THAT car she is worrying if she was underdressed.Once in the car, she finds herself sitting beside a woman who was focused on her phone.  
"Hello, I'm Kate!" Kate introduces herself and reaches her hand out.  
"I know." The woman gives her and her offered hand a short look and goes back to texting without taking Kates hand.  
"...okay. Whatever."

After some silent minutes, Kate tries to start a conversation again."Excuse me...but could you tell me where exactly we're driving?"  
No answer, just typing.  
The driver stops the car in front of a restaurant and helps Kate out of the car.  
"I don't know but if I would be in a car with the date of my boss I would be nicer. Bye." Kate snaps at the women before she lets the driver close the door.

Mycroft stands in front of the restaurant and gives her a smile as she walked towards him.  
"I think one of your employees has a smartphone addiction and is very rude, cause she ignores your guests."  
"Well, that's exactly her job." Mycroft chuckles as he offers Kate his right arm.  
"What?" Kate frowns, hooking herself at his offered arm.  
"She's supposed to act as if she's invisible and keep me informed about what's happening." Mycroft explains when a waiter leads them to their table.  
"So she was texting you all the time?" Kate askes when Mycroft pushes the chair under her to help her sit down.  
"Exactly." he assures her while taking his own place opposite of her.  
The waiter hands both of them the menu and Mycroft orders some wine for both of them.  
"She texted you about me? What I was doing? Saying?"  
"Yes."  
"What did she write?"  
"You seem to be annoying in a sympatric way, not in a Sherlock way. And you seem to not really like to be ignored." Mycroft reads the messages from his phone and looks up at Kate.  
"Yeah well...who likes to be ignored?" she laughs.  
"Living with Sherlock isn't the best idea then." he states. Then the waiter comes back with the wine and Kate takes a quick look at the short menu and orders her choice, same as Mycroft.  
"So...tell me something about you, because you seem to know everything about me anyway." Kate says smiling while the waiter is collecting their menu cards and watches away.  
"There's not much to tell besides the things you already know. This is not a normal date Kate. I invited you so I could talk to you about Sherlock." Mycroft looks at her with a more serious expression than before now.  
Kate let herself fall back in her chair and huffs.  
"He warned me to come... said this will only be about him and I thought he was being selfish!"  
"I know." Mycroft admits calmly.  
"Is there anything you don't know?!" she snaps back.  
"It's my job. I only want to keep Sherlock safe."  
"That's sick! Maybe you should try to spend your time with being a loving brother instead of...a scary dude watching his brother with cameras 24/7! Where are the cameras? In the Bathroom?!" Kate asked outraged.  
"Jesus Kate, keep it down! I have cameras in the kitchen and the living room. I'm not THAT sick." he whisper jells back at her while looking around to see if anyone noticed.  
She follows his gaze to see that some people are staring in their direction and start to whisper. "Sorry...but what do you want from me now?"  
"I have cameras but he still has his ways to avoid my watch sometimes."  
"So you want me to spy for you?"  
"Yes."  
"Let me guess, you offered John the same and he said no." Kate guesses, raising an eyebrow.  
"Yes, but YOU should know how..." he points out giving her the knowing look he already gave her when they first met.  
"Don't you dare to use that. You may have read things but you have no idea what happened so don't act as if." Kate interrupts him, giving him a short hatred look.  
"As compensation I'm going to keep your secrets."  
"You can't..." She tries to say shocked.  
"I'm the British government, remember? I'm afraid I most certainly can." Mycroft fake smiles at her while taking a sip of his wine.  
"Sherlock was right about you."  
"Isn't he right about everything most of the time?" he signs.  
"Nearly."  
Mycroft gives her a questioning look and Kate's the one to sign now. "He's not right about relationships and stuff and the fact that he thinks he can live without them forever. I mean he already failed with having John as his best friend. But there are some things he can't deduct without that, cause there are things on a more personal and private level and can only be sensed...felt even."  
"No feelings no problems I guess." Mycroft shrugs.  
"And no joy or goal in life. So what’s the point?" Kate asks, rolling her eyes.  
"You can't save him. You wouldn't be the first one to try." Mycroft tells her after looking at her for a few moments.  
"Let me try! I can handle him quite good till now. If I fail I'm your willing spy. If you really care for him then..."  
"Okay." Mycroft interrupts her just as the waiter serves their food.

After they finished eating Mycroft pays and they walk back to the car. Mycroft opens the door for her and she is greeted by the smartphone woman again.  
"Hey again, sorry about earlier." say's giving her a big smile while Mycroft sat down in the seat next to her. “Mycroft explained it to me. I hope it's worth it and he pays you well enough, cause this job sucks."  
Mycroft rolls his eyes while Kate keeps talking to her till the car stops in front of 221b. Mycroft opens the car door, helps Kate out and brings her to the door. "We have a deal right?"  
"Yes we have, but maybe I have to do something about your frozen soul too. So...just enjoy that you had a nice date with a girl nearly half your age? Thank you for the dinner!"  
She laughs and hugs him. At first he's a bit overwhelmed because this was like the first hug he's getting since he was a little child, but slowly and gentle he lays his arms around her.  
"And who's watching out after you?" Kate takes a few steps back and smiles at him caringly.  
Mycroft returns her smile, this time with a real one but ignores what she asked. "Good night Miss Taylor...and good luck with my brother."  
Kate opens the door, waves him as he walks back to his car and shouted after him. "Good night Mycie!"

Laughing about his face when she calls him Mycie, Kate makes her way upstairs, only to be greeted by a grumpy Sherlock.  
"Hey. I'm back boys!" she announced happily.  
"Obviously. We can see and hear it." Sherlock, who's looking out the window, informs her without looking at her.  
"And?? How was it??" John askes interested when he steps out of the kitchen, eating a toast.  
"It was nice...and very interesting. I wasn't on a date for years."  
"So it was really a date? And Mycroft let you hug him? And call him Mycie just like that?"  
"Yes? Why does that surprise you so much?"  
Sherlock just frowns.   
"Are you planning on going out with him again sometime?" John asked further.  
"If he would ask me I would go out with him again, yes, but just as friends. He's a little bit too old for me I think." Kate tells John while placing her bag on the table and taking her jacket off to hang it on the wardrobe.  
"Mycroft needs a little positivity in his life...just like Sherlock."  
"Oh yes, he's a true iceman. I noticed."  
Sherlock rolls his eyes and curls up on the couch.  
"By the way, I got a job now!" John announces happily.  
"Really! That's amazing!" Kate congrats him a smile.  
"And who's going to solve crimes with me now?" Sherlock suddenly says from his place on the couch.  
"Some of us need to make money. I don't need to work for the rest of the week, so I can help you for now." Kate sighs at the thought of her wasting her free days.  
"I only need to work every second day." John points out.  
"Kate normally needs to work every day so most of the week is going to be boring again."  
"We definitely need to get you a TV. Then you can watch and solve crime all day without the danger."  
"That's the idea of the year Kate!" John laughs.  
They laugh and decide to go get one as soon as they can.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Feedback?


	5. Her First Case

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NusxTNSPEdc

Kate wakes up to the beautiful sound of Sherlock's violin. She lets out a deep breath as she snuggles back into her pillow to the soft music.  
Suddenly she jumps up, grabs her violin and storms out of her room as she recognizes the song. Kate joins Sherlock's play with her own violin when she reaches the living room. He's looking out the window and quickly turns around to her enthusiastic play in confusion. She just smiles at him and jumps on the couch while playing the last emotional notes of the song.  
"As beautiful as that was, I need to go to my first day of work. Wish me luck." John throws in the room while rushing past them to the door.  
"Good luck!" Kate says, jumping from the couch into his arms.  
"Keep an eye on him." John chuckles while gently placing her on the bottom and looking at Sherlock.  
"I will." Kate responses white Sherlock rolls his eyes.  
John turns to leave and Kate gives Sherlock a warning look.  
"Sherlock!" she whisper jells and gestures towards John with her eyes.  
Sherlock clears his throat and looks way too uncomfortable.  
"John?"  
"Mh?" John hums and turns around again.  
"Good luck?" Sherlock manages to get out even tho he looks like the words are physically hurting him and it sounds more like a question.  
"Thank you." John responses, giving him a warm and thankful smile before leaving.

"Breakfast?" Kate asks as she makes her way into the kitchen after placing her violin beside the couch.  
Sherlock clearly didn't expect that question to be for him cause Kate gets no answer and turns around to meet Sherlock’s gaze.  
"No, I don't like eating." Sherlock finally answers straddled, observing her.  
She opens the fridge only to see the head of a corpse, which she just had on her table in the pathology last week.  
"Well hello there, nice to see you again Mister...Porter? I think it was James Porter."  
"That's a new unusual reaction." Sherlock notices.  
"He was MY corpse first, you can't just walk into MY pathology and take the heads of MY corpses?!" Kate fake snaps at Sherlock while taking the head, which is in a plastic bag, out of the fridge and waving it around while talking.  
Sherlock's out of words, gaping like a fish when Kate busted out in laughter and puts the head back in the fridge.  
"So, after the realization that we have no food in this apartment, I consider that we should go out to take our breakfast elsewhere. I found a nice cafe on my way to work." She says while walking back into the living room and sitting down in John's armchair. "And by the way, I really need my own armchair."  
"Whatever, I won't eat something anyway." he sighs.  
"Oh trust me, you will! I mean, look at you...you're way TOO skinny, that can't be healthy. If someone should know that, it's you." Kate warns before she leaves to get changed.

A few minutes later they leave the apartment. It was the first time she was alone with Sherlock and till now it wasn't as strange as she had imagined.  
They reach the cafe Kate mentioned before after a short walk and Kate orders a bunch of things and places them right in front of Sherlock who already sat down at a table.  
"They have some specialties, you have to try them!" Kate lets him know with an excited grin.  
"I'm not hungry." Sherlock groans and shifts uncomfortably in his chair.  
"You're one big baby. You ate nothing for days now, Holmes!"Before he can respond, Kate is pushing some sort of pastry against his mouth.  
"Trust me."  
To satisfy her he opens his mouth and she shoves the biscuit in while looking at him in excitement.  
"Aaaand?"  
"Ok...it's delicious," Sherlock admins annoyed "but nonetheless still a waste of time."  
"Well...I bought way too many for only me to eat by myself and it would be a shame to throw it away, wouldn't it?"  
"Obviously." Sherlock says rolling his eyes, as always.

After they finish their breakfast Sherlock checks his phone and has a message from Lestrade, so they decide to take a cab to the texted address.  
"Are you sure you're ok with this?" Sherlock asks Kate when the cab stops and he pays the driver.  
"Yeah, I mean...I'm meeting my boss on my free day. At least I'm going to see more of London." she shrugs.  
"We'll see."

They walk towards the shut-off tape to tell the policemen to inform Lestrade about their arrival.  
Within a few minutes Lestrade comes out of a building, followed by Donovan. Kate met her once or twice to give her information about a corpse, but didn't really like her attitude.  
Lestrade gives a sign to the policeman that it's okay to let them through the tape and smiles at them.  
"Hey Kate, sorry to ruin your free day." Lestrade greets Kate first, like the gentleman he is, and holds his hand out for her while giving Sherlock a quick friendly nod. "Sherlock."Kate shakes his hand while Sherlock already rushes inside the building before you follow him.  
Donovan stops you and gives you a concerned look.  
"Are you his new pet now? Thought you would be smarter than that. What about John? Did he kill him already?"  
"No? I'm their new flatmate and John has to work today." she states frowning but slowly feels anger rise in her. "It's none of your business what I do in my free time, so I can do what I want with whoever I want."  
"Take it easy princess." She jokes. "It will be my business when I have to imprison him because he killed you."  
"Why should he?" Kate snaps and tries to push past her to enter the building.  
"Because he's a psychopath?!" Donovan points out as if it's the most obvious fact in the world.  
"He's not a psychopath. He's a high functioning sociopath, do you're research!" Kate snaps, turning around and getting closer to her with every word. Unlike Donovan, Kate did her research when she moved in with Sherlock.  
Donovan takes a few steps back and Kate sees Sherlock in the corner of her eye who's standing next to her in the door.   
"Kate, I need you in here." He says, trying to hide a smirk while Kate blushes and follows him inside the room he came from after giving Donovan one last angry look.  
"I need you to obscure this corpse for me." Sherlock says looking at Kate who's looking around in the room to check her surroundings.  
There is a corpse of an old man on a chair in the right corner and Anderson stands right next to Lestrade in the left corner of the room.  
"I'm sure one of my colleagues is somewhere around." Kate response to Sherlock unsure why he needs her to do this.  
"Yes, there was this woman, widow, black hair..." Sherlock says as if it's the most meaningless thing.  
"Anna? Yes, where is she? I'm not here to steal her job."  
"He made her cry and threw her out of the room." Anderson bitches from his place beside Lestrade.  
"Anderson, why are you even still here?" Sherlock asks, turning to him in confusion. "Leave already! I threw her out because I don't trust in her skill. Same goes for you."  
Lestrade sighs and before Anderson can snap back he gives him a sign to leave the room.  
"But you trust me?" Kate asks, sounding much more confused than she intended.  
"Well...yes I guess so."  
Kate sighs and starts to look at the corpse.  
"He'd been shoot but that wasn't the death cause, his hand has been cut off with a very sharp knife so he died of blood loss. The cut is very precise, whoever did this must be practiced in it..." she starts to explain after a while and turns to Sherlock. "I guess he had something important with him. You know, like these suitcases which are secured to the hand with handcuffs? This house looks very....dilapidated. It could have been his hideout or something like that."  
"Good deduction." Sherlock comments.  
"Thank you!" Kate says triumphantly. “Maybe you should call Mycroft and ask him if they're missing someone who had to transport something important for the government...or any government at all?"  
"I would rather be alone with Anderson in a room for two minutes then asking Mycroft for help." he says in a disgusted voice.  
"Wow. You must be a brave man." She jokes. "But come on, don't be childish. It could solve this case in seconds."  
"Why don't you ask him since you seem to be best friends now?"  
"Who's brother is he? Mine or yours?" she asks after rolling her eyes.  
"We're going to solve this on our own!" Sherlock announces. "Let's go."He storms out of the room and Kate follows him at a normal pace while waving Lestrade goodbye.  
Before she reaches the front door Donovan appears beside her again and she already rolls her eyes when she sees that she's about to say something.  
"Remember what I said. He's dangerous."  
"Why do you hate him so much? Why do you even care about him or me?" Kate sighs, stopping to talk to her.  
"Because he's obsessed with crime and what do you think he's going to do when he gets bored? Look for a normal job? No, he's going to cause cases which he can solve for prestige." she snaps and leaves Kate to herself.  
She stands there for a moment until Sherlock enters the building again.  
"Kate!?"  
"Yes, sorry. Coming." she says caught off guard and follows him outside.

They jump into the next cab and Sherlock gives the driver an address.  
"Where are we driving?" Kate asks confused.  
"To the murderer?" he answers as if it's obvious.  
"You know who did it?"  
"I know it for sure when I see the person but I know where he is."  
"What how? Why didn't you say anything?"  
"I just know, ok? I can't explain because your little brains would get it. I didn't say it because I don't want Lestrade to follow us with his whole police station."  
"Sorry, I forgot that I'm stupid." Kate snaps and lets herself fall back into the seat.  
"No you’re not...you’re not as stupid as everyone else. I think."  
"Well...I guess that's at least something, right?" she asks with a raised eyebrow.  
"Yes, I think so." he answeres thoughtfully.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Feedback?


	6. Apologize

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NusxTNSPEdc

The cab stops in front of a pub in a rather criminal looking district of London.  
"Are you sure we can just walk around here?" Kate asks with a worried expression as she looks out the window.  
"Yes. I have my connections in these districts."  
"Of cause you have..." she says as if she's not impressed.

Sherlock enters the pub and Kate follows him. They earn some strange looks while Sherlock seems to deduct everyone and Kate decided to make her way to the bar.  
"Hey, may I ask you a question? We're looking for someone." "Depends on what you offer me for this information?" the barkeeper flirts with a dirty look on Kate's body.Kate rolls her eyes and Sherlock finally shows up beside her.  
The barkeeper just laughs, but before Sherlock can say anything, Kate reaches over the bar to grab his head and knock it on the bar.  
"Bitch!" he jells, stumbling back while holding his bleeding nose.  
"Don't talk to me like that ever again, understand?" Kate threatens.  
"That was unexpected." Sherlock notes with raised eyebrows.  
"Care to tell us now if you saw a man with a silver suitcase?" Kate asks the barkeeper again, ignoring Sherlock’s comment.  
"Dark brown hair, muscular..." Sherlock starts to describe.  
"Yes, yes! He asked for my boss and I'd sent him upstairs." the barkeeper admins.  
"Room?" Sherlock asks.  
"Second floor, third door."  
"Are there any other exits then the front door we just came through?"  
"There is a door on the roof and a backdoor."  
"Ok good."  
"Thank you. Wasn't that hard now wasn't it?" Kate says while petting the barkeeper’s cheek in an ironical way before following Sherlock in the staircase.

"I didn't know that you're that..."  
"Ready to blow?" Kate chuckles.  
"Yes..."  
"There are still many things for you to learn Mister Holmes." She smirks at him.  
"Ok," Sherlock says, turns away from her and looks up the stairs. "I'm going in and you're going to wait at the back door."  
"Are you sure you can handle this alone? You don't know how many are waiting for you and these people are high criminals."  
"I'm perfectly fine. Are you sure you can stop them if they're coming down?"  
"Yes." Kate says a bit too eager which causes Sherlock to frown.  
"Okay?"  
Kate just takes a deep breath and walks to the back door.

A few minutes after Sherlock disappeared, she hears several footsteps running down the stairs. She could make out that Sherlock is fighting with two men. While one of them keeps fighting with Sherlock, the other one takes his chance to get to the back door until he notices Kate and stops before smiling dirty and coming closer.  
Kate just rolls her eyes and makes herself ready to fight.  
"Don't think I will go easy on you because you're a woman." the man laughs.  
"Fine. I also won't go easy on you cause you're a man twice my size. Just so you know." she snaps back at him.  
They start to fight (like in this scene from 0:19 to 0:40)

https://youtu.be/c6c1I3pFPaM

He wants to punch her right in the face but Kate ducks and leans to the right which causes him to stumble. Kate takes this opportunity to raise up and ram her knee in his stomach. Before she can smack her elbow on his head he grabs her by her waist and pushes her against the door with his whole body weight. She sends a panicked look to Sherlock, who finally managed to knock the other man out seconds ago. Just at that moment, the door cracks open and she and the man fall through it. Before Kate can think straight the man jumps on his feet and grabs her.

Kate tries several tricks to free herself but the man has had good combat training and her eyes search for Sherlock.  
"SHERLOCK!"  
Sherlock appears in Kate's vision but the man punches him right on his nose which causes him to stumble and nearly black out. The man takes his chance to anesthetize Kate with chloroform and throw her in a car. When Sherlock can think straight again he sees the car driving down the street and runs after it while calling Lestrade.

Soon Lestrade locates the car on a huge factory premise that fits Sherlock's route plan the car could've chosen. Sherlock arrives before the police and didn’t waste time to wait for them to arrive, so he runs off into the old factory by himself.

After some empty floors, he finally hears voices from a room at the end of the third floor. He can see Kate who's bounded on a pillar. She's awake but seems like she is about to pass out every moment and Sherlock guesses that she's still a bit dazed from the chloroform. Her nose is bleeding and she has several blue strains and scratches on the body parts that weren't covered by cloth. The man from earlier stands with his back to the door and is speaking to somebody on the phone in another language. Sherlock hears his name in the conversation several times as he's sneaking up behind the man.  
Kate opens her eyes once again and is surprised to see Sherlock sneaking up on the man who just ended his phone call and is about to turn around to Sherlock.  
"HEY!" Kate yells as loud as she can. "ASSHOLE?"  
The man turns to her instead of Sherlock, who used that distraction to pick up an old metal piece, which once belonged to one of the machines in this factory, to knock the man out. Without another word, the man collapses and Sherlock rushes towards Kate.  
"Hey. Kate, are you okay? Stay with me." Sherlock says loud and takes her face in both hand's to focus her eyes on him.  
"Yes...no...I don't think so." she manages to get out while her eyes are fluttering as she forces herself to stay awake.

He manages to free her from her shackles and helps her up but she's too weak to stand by herself and Sherlock lets her sit down again.  
"You’re cold as ice. Here take my coat." he notices and takes his coat off.  
Kate snuggles in his warm coat, losing the fight against her eyes and shut them while Sherlock picks her up and carries her down to the police and ambulance that arrived in the meantime.  
"Did he do anything to you?"  
"Besides kicking my ass?" Kate mumbles with closed eyes but still manages to chuckle.  
"Yes."  
"No."  
Before Sherlock can say something Lestrade came running towards them and called the people from the ambulances over who take Kate. Lestrade asks Sherlock what happened and he orders some agents to look after the criminal before he went to check on Kate.

Sherlock is a bit lost until he sees John running up to him.  
"Is she okay?" John asks out of breath.  
"Yes, I think so. They're checking her over right now but she's quite tough."  
"How did that even happened?" Sherlock explains everything to John until the ambulance let Kate go.

After some time, it was dark by now, one of the doctors comes up to them.  
"She's okay, you can take her home now."  
John asks the doctor a few more questions about Kate's condition but Sherlock just walks over to her. She sits a bit offside on a huge stone, still wearing Sherlock’s coat instead of a blanket from the ambulance, and quickly wipes away tears as she sees Sherlock approaching and forces a smile.  
"I'm sorry." she says.  
"What for?" Sherlock asks confused.  
"Failing. I'm pretty good at that."  
"We got the criminal. If someone’s sorry. Then, …" He swallows, looking just like this morning, as if the words were hurting on their way out." I'm sorry for putting you into this situation."  
"Did Sherlock Holmes just apologize?" John says suddenly appearing beside Sherlock.Sherlock rolls his eyes but before he can say something a car pulls up beside them.  
"That has to be our ride." Kates says, getting up from the stone.  
"That's not a taxi." John notices with furrowed eyebrows.  
"Seriously Kate?" Sherlock growls.  
"I'm not going to apologize for using our advantages." Kate says as she climbs in the car, ignoring Sherlock’s disapproval.Nonetheless, Sherlock and John follow her into the car.  
"Can somebody explain to me who's car this is now?" John finally asks.  
"Kate texted Mycroft." Sherlock snaps.  
"Oh."

Back in 221b John explains Kate something about her pain killers and leaves to take a shower.  
Kate just watches the rainy night through the window and Sherlock observes her. She was still wearing his coat which was way too huge for her small shoulders but she seemed to feel comfortable in it and didn't even notice that she was still wearing it. After some time she turns around and her eyes meet Sherlocks who was still staring at her. She stops for a moment before she gives him a shy smile. Sherlock just looks away and frowns  
Kate walks towards him and sits down in John's armchair.  
"Do you think I didn't saw how you were fighting with the man?" Sherlock says, waiting for her reaction.  
"How was I fighting?" Kate asks with an unimpressed face.  
"Professional, rational and used to getting punched back. You're more dangerous and interesting than I ever expected Miss Taylor." Sherlock points out with excitement.  
"You don't want to know how dangerous. Trust me." Kate low-key threatening whispers in his ear after leaning closer.  
"Don't tell John." she says in her normal voice and gets up and leaves the room with her usual polite smile.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Feedback?


	7. The Great Game 1

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> This chapter refers to the Events in S01E03 so I took Story and dialogue from the Episode and placed Kate in it.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NusxTNSPEdc

Sherlock was still sitting in his armchair when Kate enters the living room in the morning.  
"Morning." she says while taking John's laptop and sitting down in his armchair.  
"What time is it?" He asks, looking at her straddled.  
Kate checks the time on the laptop. "7 am."  
"Where's John?"  
"Here." John answers from the kitchen and enters the living room with a teacup.  
"You know...I never got the chance to ask you how your first day at work was, John?" Kate asks and John starts to tell her how it went with excitement, till he leaves for another day at work.

Kate was just about to start to get ready when she has an idea and pops her head out of the tiny bathroom, looking for Sherlock.  
“Can I be loud or do you need to concentrate?” she asks.  
Sherlock frowns, confused why she even bothers to ask. “I’m waiting to leave for my flight to Russia anyways so…whatever.”  
“Russia?”  
“Yes, it’s for a possible case.”  
“Well then. Have fun I guess.” Kate smiles and starts to get dress and put makeup on while dancing and singing to her favorite songs. When she turns around she jumps because she's surprised to find Sherlock standing in the door.  
“Sorry, was I too loud?” she asks while stopping the music.  
Sherlock shakes his head. "No, I was just wondering what this was all about? Fancy dress and makeup and also a good mood after what happened yesterday."  
Kate rolls her eyes and leans over the sink to get closer to the mirror and puts her mascara on. “I have a date directly after work.”  
Sherlock stiffens. “A date? With my brother again?”  
She starts to laugh and then applies her lipstick. “No, Sherlock. I went out with your brother once. He’s way too old for me and I’m pretty sure he’s gay, sorry to break it to you. I’m going out with a colleague.”  
“Gay? Makes sense somehow.” Sherlock frowns.  
“Yes. I mean first I thought he’s just not ‘capable of romantic feelings’ like you but I think no one can completely isolate himself from feelings….I mean look at you, running around solving crimes with your best friend.”  
Before Sherlock can say more Kate gently pushes him out of the door and leaves for work.  
Then date goes really well, her date Jim is a real sweetheart and Kate is sure that she will go out with him again.  
When she returns from her date she already meets John, who also stayed out late with his current ‘crush’ Sarah, in front of the building.  
“Hey John, had a good time?” She greets him.  
“Yes! Do you think Sherlock’s back already or…?” He asks while walking up the stairs but is interrupted by gunfire.  
“Bloody hell!” Kate says storming up the stairs in worry.  
John enters the living room first and shouts at Sherlock. “WHAT THE HELL ARE YOU DOING?”  
“Bored.” Sherlock signs.   
“What?”   
“I’M BORED!” he screams and pushes himself up from his armchair.  
Kate just starts to laugh. “You’re trouble, Sherlock Holmes.” She walked towards the shelf in the kitchen and reveals two more guns. “And a very bad influence.”  
“Since when do we have so many guns in this house??” John asks shocked.  
Kate shrugs and points them at the wall. “And that coming from the only person here that really learned how to deal with a gun…and has a license to actually buy them legally.”  
Sherlock snorts and Kate removes the safety from both guns.   
“No!” John pleads, but she’s already shooting at the wall and Sherlock joins her while John seeks cover.   
“I.AM.BORED.” Sherlock screams between every shoot.   
“OK!” John says before stepping forward and taking the guns from your hands and taking the bullets out.   
“I get why you do it. It’s fun and no one’s hurt.” Kate laughs at Sherlock while sitting down in John’s armchair.   
“What’s up with the criminals?!” Sherlock sighs and lets himself fall backward on the sofa.   
“What’s with that Russian case you texted me about?” John asks while putting the guns away.   
"Yes, have you ever been to Russia since you're back already?" Kate frowns.   
“Yes. Not worth my time.” Sherlock answers with a bored voice.   
“Shame.” John says sarcastically and enters the kitchen.  
He stops in front of the table with all the experiments. “Do we have anything here? I’m starving.”  
Kate ha a hard time hiding her laugh when John approaches the fridge.  
He opens it and immediately closes it again. “Oh fuck.” He holds on to the fridge but seems a bit week on his legs.  
Finally the laugh breaks out of Kate and Sherlock looks at her, also slightly laughing.  
John opens and closes the fridge again. “It’s a head.”  
“Good deduction Mr. Watson! No wonder Sherlock takes you on cases with him.” Kate laughs.   
“What so funny about that? There is a head in the fridge!” John panics.   
“Just tea for me thanks.” Sherlock says in an amused voice and Kate laughs even more.   
“A bloody head!” John nearly screams with a higher voice than usual.   
“Yes, where else was I suppose to put it??” Sherlock asks seriously.  
Kate is laughing tears by now while Sherlock explains his experiment to John.   
“Calm down John, I was the one who did the investigation on his body, when his head was still on his head. As far as I remember he was a rapist or some shit so…who gives a shit?” Kate tries to calm him.   
“By the way, I finally checked your blog." Sherlock changed the subject.   
“And?” John asks still a bit shocked while sitting down in Sherlock’s armchair.  
“’A study in pink’? Really?”  
“I liked the name.” Kate mentions.  
“But nobody cares about your opinion since you weren’t in it.” Sherlock snaps back.  
“There was a lot of pink. Did you like it?” John asks curiously.  
“Ehm…no.”  
John frowns. “I thought you’d be flattered?”  
“Flattered? ‘Sherlock sees through everyone and everything in seconds but what’s incredible tho is how spectacularly ignorant he is about some things.’”  
Kate rolled her eyes. “Yeah about that...” She tried to step in.  
“No hang on!” John tries to justify himself.  
“What? Did you mean it in a nice way?” Sherlock asks sarcastically. “I don’t care who’s prime minister, who’s sleeping with who…”  
“Or that the earth goes around the sun.” Kate mutters under her breath and then looks up at Sherlock with a raised eyebrow.  
“Oh not that again! Of cause John told you.” Sherlock groans.  
“Nice one!” John laughs and high fives Kate.  
“It’s not important!” Sherlock shouts at them.  
“Not important?!” John asks.  
“It’s primary school stuff, how can you not know this?” Kate laughs.  
“If I ever did I deleted it.”  
Now it was Kate’s turn to frown. “Deleted it?”   
"Listen, this is my hard drive." he says pointing at his head. “And it only makes sense to put things in there that are useful. Really useful! You all put any kind of rubbish in your heads and that makes it hard to see the things that matter!”  
“I kinda get it but still…” Kate admins. “That trash we put in our heads is what makes us us and what makes us to individuals. For example, knowing every character from our favorite TV show or the lyrics of our favorite song. That’s what humans do. We decide ourselves what we find to be important. Even you do, you can play violin and know the notes so isn’t that also trash in your head? Cause what do you need that for to solve crime or whatever it is you do?”  
Sherlock holds her look for a few seconds before John breaks their bubble.   
“But it’s the solar system?!” John shouts still not convinced.  
Sherlock groans. “It doesn’t matter! All that matters is work and without that my brain rots. Put that in your blog or better stop giving your opinion about anything out in the world.” Sherlock snaps and turns around, so his back is facing them.   
“Sherlock!” Kate growls.  
John gets up without another word.   
“Where are you going?” Kate asks him.  
He grabs his jacket. “Going out.”  
Sherlock turned around to watch him leave and gets up to watch him walk away through the window while Mrs. Hudson comes in.   
"Hello, Martha." Kate warmly greets her.   
"Hello, dearie. I went to the store and got you some things." She says, placing her back on the kitchen table. “Did they have a fight again?”  
Kate nods and looks at Sherlock. “Don’t worry. I bet there will be another murderer or something soon.”  
“Yes, that will cheer you up hopefully.” Mrs. Hudson adds before she leaves again.  
“Hopefully.” Sherlock signs.  
Before Kate can say anything else there is a loud bang and in the next moment she finds herself flying through the living room.  
When she first opens her eyes she closes them immediately again to stop her head from spinning. After a few deep breaths she manages to open them again and finds herself clinging on the kitchen table on which she is half laying. There is fog everywhere and she has a hard time breathing. Kate tries to lift herself in a standing position but stops directly when she notices that the shards from Sherlock’s experiment vessels are all over the table and under her hands.  
“Fuck. Sherlock?” she finally brings out but only get a groan as an answer before she starts to feel dizzy again. The last thing she hears is sirens outside and someone running up the stairs and calling out Sherlock’s name, who sounds like Mycroft.

Kate wakes up with a groan in a lying position and as soon as she’s able to take her surrounding in she notices that she’s laying on the sofa and that Mycroft and Sherlock sitting in the armchairs watching her.  
“Good to have you back Kate.” Mycroft says with his fake smile.  
Kate sits up and holds her head. “Bloody hell.”  
Mrs. Hudson rushes to her with a glass of water. “Slow down darling. You took quite the hit.” Kate drinks it in one go and Mrs. Hudson pets her cheek. “I’m gonna get you some more water.”  
Mrs. Hudson leaves and Kate groans again. “My head and ribs hurt like hell.”  
“The doctors checked you as good as there could. You were only half awake. I don’t think you remember any of it but since we live together with a doctor we could convince them to not take you with them. As it seems you had luck. The cuts in your hands and torso aren’t too deep.” Sherlock says and Kate notices that both her hands and her torso are wrapped up. “And the liquids of my experiments weren't harmful to the skin or anything so…besides bruises and a concussion you’re good.”  
“Are you okay?” Kate looks up to him.   
“Yeah, I’m fine. A few scratches but nothing big. I wasn’t directly in front of the window like you.”  
“What the hell even happened?”  
Before Sherlock can explain you hear John storming up the stairs calling both your names. Once he entered the living room he made a relieved sound to see you both alive and breathing.   
“John.” Sherlock says while playing a tune on his violin.  
John tried to catch his breath from running up the stairs. “I saw it on the telly, are you both okay?”  
“Oh yeah, I’m fine. You need to check Kate again tho. Gas leak apparently.”  
“I can’t.” Sherlock says turning back to Mycroft.   
“Can’t?” Mycroft asks, clearly not believing him.   
“I can’t spare the time.”Kate raises an eyebrow and crosses her arms while sharing looks with John.   
“This is of national importance.” Mycroft points out.   
“How’s the diet?” Sherlock asks bluntly to change the subject.   
“Fine!” Mycroft answers annoyed and Kate snorts.   
“Maybe you can help me get through to him Kate? John?”  
“What?” John asks, still catching his breath from running.   
“I’m afraid my brother can be very intransigent.”  
“If you’re so keen why haven’t you investigated?”  
“No, no, no. I can’t possibly be away from the office any length of time. Not with the Korean election so…” everyone looked at Mycroft in confusion. "Well, you don't need to know about that, do you? Besides, a case like this requires leg work.” He says with a disgusted expression and Sherlock's head shoots up just as he made another tone with his violin.  
“And John how was the lilo?” Sherlock tries to change the subject again.   
“Sofa Sherlock, it was the sofa.” Mycroft and Kate say at the same time.  
Sherlock gave John another look. “Oh yes, of cause.”  
“How??...Never mind.” John states.   
“Sherlock’s business seems to be booming since you and him and now Kate became….pals..?” Mycroft says in attempt to bring the previous topic back on.  
He also looks at Kate now. “How is he to live with? Hellish I imagine.”  
“We’re never bored.” John answers and Kate nods very enthusiastically.   
“Good. That’s good, isn’t it?” Mycroft says with his usual fake grin and Kate shrugs unsure.

Mycroft gets up and wants to hand Sherlock the documents for the case he wants Sherlock to solve but Sherlock just stares at him instead of taking them, so Mycroft makes his way to John and Kate who sit together on the sofa now. He hands each of them a pile of paper and starts to explain the case of Andrew West, who was found dead on the train treks with his head smashed in this morning.  
“Jumped in front of a train?” John asks.   
“That seems to be the logical assumption.”  
“But?” Kate asks while looking through the files.   
“But?”  
“You wouldn’t be here if it was just an accident?”  
Sherlock laughs and Kate looks at him for a second before looking back at Mycroft, who starts to explain that Mr. West was part of a program and took care of an important memory stick that is now missing.  
“That wasn’t very clever.” Kate marks out and sees Sherlock smirking again.   
“It wasn’t the only copy. But it is secret, and missing.”  
“Top secret?” John asks again now.   
“Very. We can’t risk it falling in the wrong hands.” He turns around to Sherlock again. “You gotta find those plans, Sherlock. Don’t make me order you.”  
“I’d like to see you try.”  
Kate snorts at that and Mycroft gives her an unhappy look.  
“Think it over.” He says to Sherlock again before turning to John and Kate to shake their hands. “Goodbye, John. Kate. See you very soon.”  
Sherlock starts to play nervous music with his violin while Mycroft leaves and John and Kate just give him a strange look till Kate bursts out in laughter.  
As soon as John knows that Mycroft can’t hear them anymore he turns to Sherlock. “Why did you lie? You got nothing on. Not a single case.”  
“That’s why the wall took a pounding.” Kate throws in.   
“Why did you tell your brother you were busy?”  
“Why shouldn’t I?”  
“Oh.” John nods and looks at Kate.   
“Nice.” She says rolling her eyes and leans back against the sofa.   
“Sibling rivalry.” John signs.   
“Now we’re getting somewhere.” Kate says sarcastically.  
Before Sherlock can answer his phone rings and he picks it up. His face lits up and after he ended the call he immediately gets up. ”Lestrade. I’m being summoned. You’re coming?”  
John gets up and follows Sherlock. A few seconds later they return and look at Kate.   
“Me too?” She asks surprised.  
“Obviously?” Sherlock says as if it’s as clear as the fact that the earth goes around the sun.   
“But I’ll need my painkillers for that.” She says while John helps her up from the sofa.  
Sherlock’s already downstairs getting a cab for them.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Feedback?


	8. The Great Game 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> This chapter refers to the Events in S01E03 so I took Story and dialogue from the Episode and placed Kate in it.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NusxTNSPEdc

Once they arrive at Scotland Yard Lestrade leads them to his office and explains that the gas leak wasn’t a gas leak at all. It was only suppose to look like one and all that was left was a box with an envelope addressed to Sherlock.   
“Oh great. This is getting better and better.” Kate signs and sits down in a chair, sharing a look with Lestrade while Sherlock inspects the envelope.  
Donovan enters the office and starts to look through some papers while giving Kate a distasteful look which Kate only reply with the same dumb face.  
Sherlock opens the envelope carefully and reveals a phone.   
“That…That’s the phone. The pink phone!” John stutters.   
“What? From ‘A Study In Pink’?” Lestrade asks. "No, it's not the same phone. It's only suppose to look like…" Sherlock explains while inspecting the phone before straightening up and turning to Lestrade. "'A Study In Pink’? You read his blog?”  
“Of cause I read his blog. We all do! Do you really not know the earth goes around the sun?” Lestrade asks seriously and Kate holds back her laugh while Donovan snorts obviously.  
John looks quite unconvertable while Sherlock gives Donovan a hateful look which causes her to leave the room before Sherlock goes back to explaining why this is not the same phone than the one from ‘A Study In Pink’.  
When Sherlock finds a message on it Kate gets up from her chair and steps closer to listen better. There are 5 pips and a picture of some sort of basement.   
“It’s a warning.” Sherlock states after Lestrade starts ranting about the message.   
“A warning?” Kate asks with a frown.   
“Secret societies used methods like that. They’re warning us, it’s gonna happen again!”  
Before the others can say something Sherlock is on his way out. “I’ve seen this place before.”  
“Hang on, what’s gonna happen again?” John asks running after Sherlock.  
Kate signs and runs after John. “BOOM!” and Sherlock makes a fitting gesture to that.   
Lestrade also follows them after grabbing his stuff and they take a cab back to 221B.

Once they arrive Sherlock storms towards a door near Mrs. Hudson's apartment. 221C.   
“John, get Misses Hudson!”John rushes towards her door and knocks. After a few seconds, she opens the door and they ask her for the keys.   
“Has it been opened recently?” Sherlock asks her.   
“No, can’t be. That’s the only key. I can’t get anyone interested in that flat...” Mrs. Hudson tells them but before she can finish they all disappear in the basement.

Indeed they find the room from the picture, but in the center of the room are some sort of sports shoes.  
"Remember he’s a bomber.” John says as Sherlock steps towards the shoes.  
Carefully he gets down on his knees to inspect the shoes while Kate shares a worried look with John and Lestrade.  
Suddenly a phone starts ringing and everyone jumps at the sound.   
“Could it ring any louder?!” Kate growls and Sherlock holds his hand up to shut her down before picking up the call and putting it on speaker.  
On the phone is a woman that sounds scared. “Hello, sexy.”  
“What the fuck?” Kate whisper jells and everyone shushes at her.   
“Who is this?” Sherlock asks.   
“I send you a little puzzle, just to say hi.” The woman manages to say.  
As it seems the criminal is just using the woman to talk through her with Sherlock, who mumbles something under his breath.   
“What?” Lestrade asks.   
“Nothing.”  
“No, what do you mean?” John repeats the question.   
“I’ve been expecting this for some time.” Sherlock says and Kate rolls her eyes.   
“12 hours to solve my puzzle, Sherlock, or I’m going to be so naughty.” the woman continues and then the call ends.   
“This is insane.” Lestrade talks first. "We have 12 hours so nothing is lost. We're gonna take the shoes to the lab." Sherlock says and leaves the basement with the shoes before anyone can react.

In the lab, Sherlock starts to inspect and run tests on the shoes immediately while Kate and John just sit and wait till John gets bored and starts walking around.  
“So who do you suppose it was?” John asks.   
“Mh?” Sherlock hums.   
“The woman on the phone. The crying woman.” Kate explains for Sherlock with a bored sign. She has her elbow on the table and her head resting on her hand, observing Sherlock’s movements.   
“Just a hostage. No lead there.” "For god's sake, I wasn't thinking about leads." John snaps back at him.   
“There’s not gonna be much use to her.”  
“Are you trying to trace it? Trace the call?”  
“He too smart for that.” Sherlock says when his phone makes a sound. “Kate, pass me my phone.”  
“Where is it?” she asks looking around from her chair like two meters besides him.   
“Jacket.”  
She just watches him for a moment before she gets up from her chair and stops short before him. “Are you kidding me? Seriously, is this a joke?” she asks looking at John who shrugs.   
“Kate, now.” Sherlock says not looking up from his experiment.   
“Lucky ass…” She reaches for his jacket pocket angrily.   
“Careful!” Sherlock warns cause she’s being too rough.   
“...hole.” Kate growls, finally getting the phone out and reading the message. “A text from your brother.”  
“Delete it.”  
“Delete it?”  
“His plans are out of the country. There’s nothing he can do about it. "Well, Mycroft thinks there is. He texted you 8 times. Must be important." John says, looking over Kate’s shoulder on the phone.   
“Then why didn’t he cancel his dental appointment?”  
“His what?” Kate asks.   
“Mycroft never texts if he can talk, look Andrew West stole the plans, tried to sell them and got his head smashed in. End of story. The only mystery is this, why is my brother so determent to bore me when someone else is being so delightfully interesting?”  
“Try to remember there’s a woman who might die.” John growls.   
“The hospital is full of people dying, John, why don’t you go and cry by their bedside and see what good it does them?”  
Suddenly the computer makes a loud noise as a result for a match to some test Sherlock run but before they can check the lab door opens and Jim walks in. “Hey!”  
“Jim! Hey. Come in!” Kate smiles and waves him in.Jim shyly walks in and makes its way towards them.   
“What are you wearing?” Kate frowns while checking Jim’s cloth out.   
“I heard someone say you were here so I just came by to say hi.” Jim just ignores her.   
“This is Sherlock Holmes and John Watson my flatmates." She introduces them and points at each of them. "And this is Jim. The colleague I was on a date with yesterday.”  
John shakes his hand and Jim walks closer to Sherlock. “So you’re Sherlock Holmes? Kate told me so much about you. Are you working on one of your cases?”  
Sherlock gives him a look. “Gay.”  
“Sorry, what?” Kate asks frowning.   
“Nothing, ehm…hey!” Sherlock fake smiles at Jim.   
“Hey.” Jim says before accidentally pushing something from the table. ”Sorry! Sorry…”  
He picks it up and starts to walk towards the door again. “I’ll better be off. See you on our date tomorrow!” He says to Kate before turning back to Sherlock. ”Bye! Was nice to meet you.”  
“You too.” John says as Sherlock isn’t answering.  
As soon as Jim leaves the door Kate turns towards Sherlock. “What do you mean gay? He asked me out!”  
Sherlock starts to explain why Jim is obviously gay and finishes by showing that he left his number with the item he ‘accidentally’ dropped for Sherlock.  
Kate snatches the note from Sherlock’s hands. “We made out and he didn’t seem very gay about that. I admit that his cloth style today was strange but he never wears anything like that, he's an elegant intelligent man. And what do you know about being gay? I was the one who needed to tell you that Mycroft is possibly gay!"  
“Mycroft is gay?” John asks in confusion.   
“Shut up!” Sherlock and Kate both snap at the same time before staring at each other for a second.   
“I just wanted to save you some time. You can call it off now instead of wasting time and going out with him again. Isn’t that kind?”  
“No Sherlock, that is not kind.” John explains.  
Sherlock sighs and looks at Kate before he grabs the sneakers and places them before her. "Go on in."  
“What?” Kate asks in confusion.   
“You know what I do, off you go. Tell me what you see.” Sherlock explains calmly.   
“Haha.” Kate fake laughs before turning to Sherlock with a straight face. “No. So you can humiliate me?”   
“An outside eye is very useful to me. Really.”  
They stare at each other for a good amount of time until John clears his throat to break the awkward silence.   
“Alright.” Kate signs and pics one shoe up to get a closer look. “I don’t know, it’s just shoes….trainers.”  
“Very good.” Sherlock says and Kate rolls her eyes at him.   
“Fuck you, Sherlock.” She says before going back to investigating the shoes. “They’re in a good nick, I’d say they were pretty new except the soles have been well worn, so the owner must’ve had them for a while. Very 80s, maybe one of those retro designs.”  
“You’re in sparkling form, what else?” Sherlock asks and earns a death glare from Kate. "They're quite big, so a man's, but there are traces of a name inside. Adults don't write their name inside their shoes so…these belonged to a kid." Kate says looking up at Sherlock who looks proudly at her.   
“Excellent. What else?” He slightly smiles.   
“That’s it.” Kate signs while placing the shoes back on the table. “How did I do?”  
“Well Kate, really well. I mean you almost missed everything important, but you know…” before he can finish his sentence Kate rolls her eyes and pushed the shoes in his arms and he starts deducting them.   
“…British made, 20 years old.” Sherlock finishes.   
“20 years?” John asks.   
“They’re not retro, they’re traditional.” He explains, showing them both a pic of the model on his phone.   
“But it’s still modern and they look new?” John asks again, still curious.   
“Someone’s kept them that way.” Kate notices and Sherlock nods.  
Sherlock further explains that he found mud from Sussex underneath and mud from London upon it.   
“So the kid came from Sussex to London 20 years ago?” Kate asks frowning.   
“Exactly!” Sherlock grins at her.   
“So what happened to him?” John asks.   
“Something bad.” Sherlock says. “He loved those shoes, remember? He would never leave them behind unless he had to.”   
“So a child with big feet gets…” Sherlock starts but stops and freezes for a moment. “Oh…”  
“What?” John asks.   
“Carl Powers.”  
“Sorry, who?” Kate asks.   
Sherlock begins to explain that it was his first investigation on a case as a child in 1989. Carl Powers was a champion swimmer who came to London for a school sports tournament and drowned in the pool. Everybody thought it was a tragic accident, except Sherlock who read it in the papers. But he was only a child himself and of cause nobody believed him. The thing that had bothered Sherlock back then was the fact that they found all his cloth in his locker except his shoes.

The three of them took a cab back to 221B to find out more about Carl Powers. Currently Sherlock was reading through old newspaper articles in the kitchen when John and Kate approached him.   
“Can we help?” John asks politely.   
“We really want to help. There are only five hours left.” Kate repeats after Sherlock doesn’t answer.   
Then John’s phone makes a noise and he takes it out to read the message. “It’s your brother. He’s texting me now.”  
Kate phone makes a noise too and she checks it and rolls her eyes. “Me too.”  
“How does he has my number?” John suddenly frowns.   
“He works for the government so…don’t ask.” Kate signs and walks to sit down in Sherlock’s armchair.   
“Must be a root canal.” Sherlock comments without looking up.   
“Look,” John starts. “He did say: National importance.”  
“How acquaint.”  
“What is?”  
“You are. For Queen and Country.” Sherlock tells John.  
Kate snorts and John gives her an angry look. “Don’t encourage him!”  
“But it’s true?” Kate laughs and John signs and turns to Sherlock again.   
“You can’t just ignore it.” He says a little angrier.   
“I’m not ignoring it. I’m putting my best man on it right now.”  
“Ok.” John signs again but then looks curious at Sherlock. “Who’s that?”  
Kate groans, cause it’s obviously John.  
Sherlock looks up and straight into John’s eyes. “Kate.”  
“What?” Kate nearly screams.   
“You’re my best ‘man’ and I want you to take that case for my brother’s sake and he likes you more than John so…”  
“But I just started ‘working’ with you.” She states, getting up from the armchair and walking over to John and Sherlock in the kitchen with crossed arms.   
“You’re point is? You've proven yourself worthy of that task more than once so off you go.” Sherlock says and John just shrugs at her.   
“Okay.” Kate breaths out and texts Mycroft back to arrange a meeting.

A short time later Kate finds herself sitting in Mycroft office. She dressed nicely and put all the files in a folder to look more professional.   
“Kate!” Mycroft says with his fake happy voice as he enters the room and Kate gets up from her chair.   
“How nice, took him long enough.” He mumbles while placing some papers on the table and giving you a sign to sit down again. “What can I do for you?”"I wanted to…well, your brother sends me to collect more facts about the stolen plans." Kate explains.   
“Did he? Don’t you have work to attend to?” Mycroft frowns and leans back against his table, finally facing Kate.   
“Yes? He’s investigating now.” Kate nods and smiles at him, hoping he buys it. “And I’m supposed to stay home ‘sick’ because of the gas leak explosion thing.” Kate shows him her still bandaged hands.  
Mycroft grabs his chin with a slightly pained expression. So he really had a dental appointment.   
“I was wondering what else you can tell me about the dead man?” Kate finally asks.   
“27, clerked at Maxhall Cross, MI6. He was involved in the Bruce-Partington-Program in a minor capacity. Security checks A1, no known terrorist affiliations or sympathies, last seen by his fiancé at 10:30 pm yesterday. He told her that he needed to go out to see someone.”  
“Right…he was found in Battersea. So he got on the train?”  
“No.”  
“What?”  
“He had an oyster card but it hadn’t been used.”  
“Must’ve bought a ticket then.” Kate suggests.   
“There was no ticket on the body.”  
“Then…”  
“’Then how did he end up with a bashed in brain on the tracks of Battersea?’ That is the question. The one I was rather hoping Sherlock would provide an answer to. How’s he getting on?”  
“He’s fine.” Kate smirks and Mycroft rolls his eyes.   
“I meant the case.”  
“Sure you did.” She says sarcastically. “IT is going very well. You know, he’s completely focused on it.”  
She gave him a big reassuring smile.   
“Well, anything else?” Mycroft asks.   
“No, that’s it for now. Thanks.”  
“Good, cause I have some important things to handle. See you soon, Kate” Mycroft says and leaves her alone in his office before she can say goodbye.

Kate signs as she enters the flat.   
“Hey you’re back, how’d it go?” John asks, sitting in his armchair with a newspaper.   
“Good. Any news? It’s only 3 hours left.”  
“Not yet.” John signs sadly.   
“POISON!” they suddenly hear Sherlock scream from the kitchen.   
“What are you going on about?” Mrs. Hudson asks who just brought up some tea.   
“Clostridium Botulinum!” Sherlock says and smashes his hands on the table, causing Mrs. Hudson to jump and leave and Kate and John to enter the kitchen in no time. “It’s one of the deadliest poisons on the planet.” He explains and looks up at them.   
“You’re saying he was murdered?” John frowns.   
“Remember the shoelaces?” Sherlock asks while getting up and walking over to where he hung up the shoelaces.   
“Mh.” John and Kate hum in union.   
“The boy suffered from eczema. It’d be the easiest thing in the world to introduce the poison into his medication. Two hours later he comes up to London, the poison takes effect, paralyzes the muscles and he drowns.”  
“How come the autopsy didn’t pick that up?” John asks curiously to them both since Kate is the pathologist.   
“Some poisons are nearly undetectable and nobody would've waste time to look for it in a ‘clear’ accident like that.” Kate explains feeling a bit called out.   
“It was still tiny traces of it left inside the trainers from where he put the cream on his feet. That’s why they had to go.” Sherlock explains while typing the case solution on his blog.   
“So how do we let the bomber know?” John asks.   
“Get his attention. Stop the clock.”"The killer kept the shoes…all these years?" Kate shakes her head.  
Sherlock turns towards her. “Yes…meaning?”  
“He’s our bomber.” John states looking at them.  
Suddenly the phone rings and Sherlock picks it up.   
“Well done you, come and get me.” The crying woman says.   
“Where are you? Tell us where you are.” Sherlock demands her.

After she told them where she was Sherlock called Lestrade who send a team to pick her up and the three of them made their way to Scotland Yard again. Currently, John and Kate were sitting across Lestrade in his office while Sherlock was staring out the window inside the cube farm.   
"She lives in Cornwall, two men broke in wearing masks, forced her to drive to the carpark and decked her with enough explosives to take down a house.” Lestrade explains and Sherlock walks over to them  
“Told her to phone you, let her read out from this.” He addresses Sherlock directly and hands him a Pager.   
“And if she deviated by one word the sniper would set her off.” Sherlock says as he walks back to the window.   
“Or if you hadn’t solved the case.” Kate states.   
“Elegant.” He breathes.   
“Elegant?” John asks shocked.   
“What was the point? Why would anyone do this?” Lestrade says angrily.   
“I can’t be the only person in the world that gets bored.” Sherlock notices.At that moment the phone rings again and everybody turns to Sherlock who plays the left message.   
“4 pips.” John more asks then states.   
“First test passed it would seem. Here’s the second one.” Sherlock says showing everybody a picture of a car. “It’s abandoned wouldn’t you say?”  
“I see if it’s been reported.” Lestrade says and grabs his phone.   
The door opens and Donovan walks in with a phone in her hand. “Freak? It’s for you.”  
Sherlock walks over to her and takes the phone, leaving the office to take the phone call in silence, separated from Lestrade’s call. Kate observes him through the glass and notices something in his face and slaps John on the shoulder who follows her gaze.   
“It’s the bomber again isn’t it?” he whispers in order to not disturb Lestrade’s call.   
“I think so.” Kate whispers back and gets up.  
John follows her out of Lestrade’s office and they catch the end of the phone call.   
“You’ve stolen another voice I assume.” Sherlock says “Who are you? What’s that noise?”  
“Great! We found it.” Lestrade suddenly shouts and leaves his office to gather his team and leave for the car.The three flatmates follow him quickly.

The car was found nearby the river on an abandoned factory property similar to the one Kate was kidnapped to some days ago.   
“Are you okay?” John asks her as the two of them walk behind Sherlock and Lestrade who seems to fill Sherlock in with the facts he has about the car.   
“Yes, sure.” Kate says, not really knowing why John asks.   
“I just thought…with the kidnapping and all, you know?”  
“Oh yes, thanks John but I’m fine, really.” She smiles at him as Sherlock and Lestrade wander off to investigate the car.  
Before they can join them Donovan stops them. “You two are still hanging around him?”  
“Yeah…well.” John says.   
“Opposites attract I suppose.” She says and John opens his mouth to say something. “You should get yourself a hobby. Stamps maybe, model trains. It’s safer.”  
“And you should get yourself an unmarried man to fuck around with.” Kate says and Donovan just rushes to Lestrade and John and Kate share a look before joining her, Lestrade and Sherlock.   
“No corpse.” Sherlock states.   
“Not yet.” Donovan corrects and Kate rolls her eyes. "Get a sample send to the lab." Sherlock says and Lestrade gives Donovan an ordering look before she signs and stamps off.

Sherlock approaches the wife of the possibly dead man and John and Kate follow him on foot.   
“Misses Monkford?”  
“Yes? Sorry, I've already spoken with two policemen."  
“We’re not from the police, we’re…” John starts.   
“Sherlock Holmes.” Sherlock interrupts him in a sad voice and offers the woman his hand to shake and Kate and John frown. “An old friend of your husbands.”Kate gets what he's doing and steps up beside him.   
“We…ehm…” Sherlock starts to fake cry.  
Kate hooks their arms together and pets his upper arm with her other hand. “It’s ok darling.”  
She also starts to tear up and turns towards the woman. “We basically grew up together. I’m Kate Holmes. His wife.”  
She let’s go off Sherlock for a moment to shake the woman’s hand too and get out a tissue to dry her fake tears.   
“I’m sorry, who? I don’t think he ever mentioned you.” The woman asks curiously. "Oh, he must've done." Sherlock continues with his crying voice as he reaches for Kate's hand and holds it in a tight grip. “This is…horrible. We only saw him the other night.”  
He looks at Kate who’s still drying her fake tears with her free hand.   
“Yes, same old Ian. Carefree.” Kate says breaking out in crying once again and leans into Sherlock side.   
"Sorry? My husband has been depressed for months." The woman states angry and Sherlock gives Kate and John a look. "Who are you?"  
“Really strange that he hired a car…why would he do that? A bit suspicious, isn’t it?” Sherlock continues.   
“No, it isn't. He forgot to renew the tax on the car, that's all." The woman explains.   
“Well, that was Ian.” Kate cry laughs nostalgically.   
“Yes, that was Ian all over.” Sherlock joins her.   
“No, it wasn’t!” The woman says angrily.   
“Wasn’t it? Interesting.” Sherlock says in his normal voice again and let's go of Kate's hand to walk away.  
John and Kate quickly follow him.   
“Why did you lie to her? You two are unbelievable.” John asks running after Sherlock while Kate is still a bit straddled by the coldness that hit her hand when Sherlock let hers go. It did felt easier to hold his hand than she expected. It felt right.   
“People don’t like telling you things. They like to contradate you.” Sherlock explains him. “Past tense, did you notice?”  
“Sorry what?”  
“We referred to her husband in the past tense. She joined in. By the way, great work, Kate.”  
“Yeah…Thanks. You too.” Kate says sounding a bit straddled cause she was having a staring contest with Donovan that was lurking from the distance at them, but she still gives Sherlock a weak smile as he turns around to her.  
“So, it’s a bit prematurely. They just found the car.”  
“You think she murdered her husband?”  
“Definitely not. That’s not a mistake a murderer would make.   
“Oh I see….no I don’t, what do I see?”  
“Fishing! Try fishing.” Donovan screams as they pass her.   
“And you use protection! I don’t want a little Anderson Donovan mix running around this earth!” Kate screams right back at her.  
John shakes his head. “Where now?”  
“Janus Cars.” Sherlock hands John a business card. “Just found this in the glove compartment.”  
“6 hours left boys.” Kate reminds them as they climb into a cab.

At Janus Cars they're lead towards the owner's office and John and Kate sit down opposite of Mr. Ewart.   
“Can’t see how I can help you gentleman.” he explains.   
“Mister Monkford hired the car from you yesterday?” John asks.   
“Yes, lovely motor. Mazda RX8. Wouldn’t mind owning one myself.   
“Is that one?” Sherlock asks wandering through the office.   
“No there all Jag’s. I can see you’re not a car man, mh?”  
“But I’m sure that you can afford one. A Mazda I mean.”  
“Yes, a fair point. You know how it is, it’s like working in a sweets shop once you start picking out the licorice, when does it all stop?”  
“But you didn’t know Mister Monkford?” John asks him.   
“No, he was just a client who came in here and hired one of my cars. No idea what happened to him. Poor soul.”  
“Nice holiday Mister Ewart? You’ve been away haven’t you?” Sherlock asks.   
“Oh the…no it’s been sunbed I’m afraid, yeah. Too busy to get away. My wife would love it tho but it’s…” He explains smiling at them.   
“Do you got any change for the cigarettes machine?” Sherlock interrupts him and John and Kate frown.   
“Huh?”  
“I noticed one on the way in and haven’t got any change. I’m gasping.” Mr. Ewart searches his wallet but can’t find any change for Sherlock.   
“Well, thank you very much for your time Mister Ewart, you’ve been very helpful.” Sherlock grins at him and walks to the door. “Come on guys.”  
You leave the office and make your way through the garage.  
“I’ve got change if you still want to…” John offers Sherlock.   
“Nicotine patches, remember? I’m doing well.”  
“So what was that all about?” Kate asks.   
“I needed to look inside his wallet.”  
“What?”  
“Mister Ewart is a liar.”

After a quick stop at the lab, where Sherlock runs tests on the blood sample Donovan send there, that John and Kate spend in the café on the opposite, they meet again with Lestrade in a garage where they moved the car.  
“How much blood was on that seat would you say?” Sherlock asks him.   
“How much? About a pint?”  
“Not about. Exactly a pint. That was their first mistake. Blood’s definitely Ian Monkford’s but it’s been frozen.”  
“Frozen?” Lestrade frowns.  
“There are clear signs. I think Ian Monkford gave a pint of his blood sometime and that is what they spread on the seat.”  
“Who did?” Kate asks.   
“Janus Cars. The sprout is in the name.”  
“The god with two faces?” John notices.   
“Exactly. They provide a very special service. If you got any kind of a problem: Money troubles, bad marriage, whatever. Janus Cars will help you disappear. Ian Monkford was up to his eyes in some kind of trouble, financially I guess. He’s a banker, couldn’t see a way out. But if he would’ve vanished, if the car he hired was found abandoned with his blood all over the driver’s seat...”  
“So where is he?” Lestrade wants to know.  
“Columbia.”  
“Columbia?” Sherlock explains that he saw Columbian money in Mr. Ewart's wallet, that he had tan lines from a shirt which you do not wear on the sunbed and that he was scratching his arm and had little blood stains on his shirt from a recent vaccination.  
“Conclusion: Just came back from settling Ian Monkford into his new life in Columbia. Misses Monkford cashes in the life insurance and she splits it with Janus Cars.” He finishes.  
John gapes. “Misses Monkford?”  
“Oh yes, she’s in on it too.”"Now go and arrest them, Inspector, that's what you do best. We need to tell our friendly bomber that the case is solved." Sherlock says before walking away.  
Kate and John follow close behind, astonished by what he just told them.   
“I am on fire!” He screams.

Back in the flat Sherlock immediately posts the result of the case and within seconds the phone rings and the second hostage can be freed.  
Sherlock has a happy smile on his face and Kate snorts. “Don’t enjoy this too much. It has to be over sooner or later.”  
“I know but right now this is amazing. 3 to go.” Sherlock jumps up and Kate shakes her head.   
“Remember there are real human lives at risk, Sherlock.” John reminds him but is ignored.

After at least John and Kate get a full night of sleep they all meet up in the café under their flat for breakfast and even tho Sherlock refuses to eat Kate orders him a croissant, which he is now slowly eating with a distasteful look while John and Kate just smile proudly at each other.  
“Has it occurred to you?” John starts.   
“Probably.” Sherlock cuts him off.   
“No. has it occurred to you that the bomber is playing a game with you? The envelope, breaking into the other flat, the dead kid’s shoes. It’s all meant for you.” John says and Kate looks up from her food.   
“Yes, I know.”  
“Is it him then? Moriarty?”  
“Who’s Moriarty?” Kate asks innocently.   
“Perhaps.” Sherlock tells John before explaining Kate briefly about Moriarty till the phone on the table lights up cause it has a new message.   
There is a new message with a new pic. A picture of a woman.  
“That could be anybody.” Sherlock frowns and Kate shrugs.  
“It could be yeah.” John signs and places his fork on his plate. “Lucky for you I used to be more than a little unemployed.”  
“What do you mean?”  
“Lucky for you Misses Hudson and I watch too much telly.” John gets up and turns the TV in the café on.  
The phone rings and Sherlock pics it up while Kate just stares at him and John makes his way back to them.  
When the call ends Kate signs. “I call Lestrade, you two go and get a cab for us.”

Lestrade invites them to the pathology and soon later they arrive there.  
“Home sweet home.” Kate says and passes Sherlock who’s still listening to Lestrade’s facts about the dead woman.   
“So: Dead two days, according to one of her staff, Raul de Santos, she cut her hand on a rusty nail in the garden, nasty wound. Tetanus bacteria enters the bloodstream and goodnight Vienna.” Sherlock jokes.   
“I suppose so.” John agrees.   
“Somethings wrong with this picture.” Sherlock says looking at the corpse of Connie Price.   
“Mh?” Lestrade hums.   
“Can’t be as simple as it seems, otherwise the bomber wouldn’t be directing us towards it. Somethings wrong.” He took a closer look at the body. “Kate?”  
Kate looks up to him from where she was looking at the corpse. “Yes, Sherlock?”  
“Look at it as if everything you see here and know about the corpse must be proven wrong.”  
She takes her time and snatches Sherlock’s magnifier out of his jacket pocket.  
“How did you know it was there?” Sherlock asks.  
“Found it yesterday when you ordered me to hand you your phone.”  
After she looked at the corpse closely for a few minutes she stops in tracks. “The cut, it’s too clean. John?”  
“Yes?”  
“How long would the bacteria been incubating inside her?”  
“Eight…ten days?” John assumes based on his medical knowledge.  
“The cut was made later.” Sherlock nods.   
“After she was dead?” Lestrade throws in.  
“Has to be. The only question is: How did the Tetanus enter the dead woman’s system?” Sherlock asks and takes his magnifier back from Kate's hand to inspect the corpse himself.   
He looks up and turns to John after some time. “You want to help right?”  
“Of cause.”  
“Connie Prince’s background, family history, everything. Give me data.”  
“Alright.” John says and immediately leaves to get to work.   
“There’s something else we haven’t thought of.” Lestrade stops Kate and Sherlock as they want to leave too.   
“Is there?” Sherlock asks.   
“Yes, why is he doing this? The bomber? If this woman’s death was suspicious then why point it out?”  
“Good Samaritan.”  
“Who pressgangs suicide bombers?”  
“Bad Samaritan.”  
Kate laughs and Sherlock smirks at her.   
“I’m serious Sherlock. Listen, I’m cutting you slack here. I'm trusting you, but somewhere out there is a poor bastard covert in Semtex and just waiting for you to solve the puzzles and just tell me, what are we dealing with?"  
“Something new.” Sherlock smiles and grabs Kates hand to drag her with him out of the pathology and away from Lestrade.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Feedback?


	9. The Great Game 3

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> This chapter refers to the Events in S01E03 so I took Story and dialogue from the Episode and placed Kate in it.
> 
> I'm sorry it took me so Long to finish this chapter but at least it's the longest I have till now so I hope you're still here and enjoying it. <3

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NusxTNSPEdc

Back at 221B Sherlock pins everything he has from the 3 cases to the wall above the sofa and paces around in the flat while Lestrade and Kate drink the tea Mrs. Hudson brought them, sit in the armchairs and watch Sherlock think in silence.  
“Connection, connection, connection….there has to be a connection!” Sherlock mumbles and goes through the facts of each case once again. “What’s he doing? Working his way through around the world? Showing off?”  
“Some people might say that about you too, you know.” Kate says to Sherlock with a raised eyebrow while Lestrade gets up and walks over to him when suddenly the pink phone rings again.  
“You’re enjoying this, aren’t you? Joining the dots. 3 hours…. Boom…, boom.” An old woman whispers out of breath and Lestrade and Kate are shocked.  
Sherlock growls when the call ends and continues to pace through the room.

At some point, Mrs. Hudson comes back up to bring new tea and looks at Sherlock's wall with Lestrade and Kate while Sherlock needs to make an important call.  
“It’s a real shame. I liked her. She touched me how to deal with colors.” Mrs. Hudson explains while looking at the picture of Connie Prince.   
“Colors?” Lestrade asks frowning.   
“You know, what goes best with what. I should never wear cerise, apparently. Drains me.” She kindly explains him and Kate smirks at Lestrade who’s nodding and smiling politely at everything Mrs. Hudson tells him.  
Sherlock ends his call and joins them again, standing between Kate and Mrs. Hudson.   
“Who was that?” Kate enquires.   
“Home Office.”  
“Home Office?” Lestrade gasps.   
“Well…Home Secretary actually. Owes me a favor.”  
Kate only rolls her eyes and mumbles something like “Of cause they do.” under her breath.

Mrs. Hudson draws their attention back to the wall with a sigh. “Pretty girl. Messed about with herself too much. They all do these days.” She looks over at Kate. "Don't you dare to ever let something on that beautiful face or body of yours be changed, darling!"Kate just laughs and gives her an honest smile. “I promise Martha. I won’t. Ever!”  
“People can hardly move their faces. Silly isn’t it?” She laughs deeply, looking at Lestrade who smiles back at her before she turns to face Sherlock. “Did you ever see her show?”  
“Not until now.” Sherlock replies and grabs the Laptop from the table and turns on an episode of her show in which she seems to embarrass a man on live television.   
“That’s her brother. No love lost there if you believe the papers.” Mrs. Hudson explains.   
“I’ve just been having a very fruitful chat with people who love this show. Fan sites are in expansible for gossip.”  
Kate shakes her head at the scene they’re looking at. “Sherlock, look at this. I think you and Mycroft have a perfectly fine relationship now that I’m seeing this. If he was like her, I would get why you’re constantly trying to fight him!”  
Before Sherlock can response his phone rings and he pics it up. “John?”  
He listens to John for a few moments. “I’ll remember. Just tell me.”  
Once the call ends he goes to grab his coat. “Kate, we’re leaving. Take your credit card.” "My credit card? Oh, wonderful.” She groans frustrated and grabs her purse and jacket while Sherlock is already on his way downstairs.  
“I’ll call you!” Kate promises Lestrade, who just shares a confused look with Mrs. Hudson, before she runs after Sherlock.In the cab Sherlock explains to Kate that John is at Connie Price's house to interview her brother and faked to be a news reporter. Now he thinks he found something and need’s them to come over, but to keep his cover up they’re gonna act like they’re photographers.

The cab stops in front of the next best electronic shop and Sherlock looks for a camera.   
“Yes, of cause. Pick the most expensive one, please. It's only my money which I worked hard for in comparison to other people in this shop, so just throw it out the window…never mind. No big deal.” Kate mutters sarcastically as she sees Sherlock picking a camera.   
“You can keep it after the case.” Sherlock states on his way to the cash desk and Kate just rolls her eyes.   
“And what would I do with an expensive camera like that? Take pictures of the pathology? It’s not like I’m going on vacation often.”  
“You can bring it back to the store and get your cash back right after the case. But no one will believe that we’re photographers if we turn up with the cheapest camera in this shop. I can also pay it back to you one day too if you wish.”  
“Never mind.” She sighs and pushes past Sherlock towards the waiting cab.

When they arrive at the address John send them, a young man lets them in and they can already hear John announcing them.   
“Mister Prince, isn’t it?” Sherlock enquires entering with a bright smile and offering Mr. Prince his hand.   
“Yes.” The man assures him, shaking his hand.   
“Very good to meet you.” Kate lies, also shaking his hand.   
“Thanks.”  
“I’m the photographer Mister Holmes and this is my apprentice Miss Taylor.” Sherlock introduces them both.   
“So sorry to hear about…” Kate starts and Sherlock nods approvingly.   
“Yes, yes very kind.”  
John rolls his eyes and waves them to him. “We just need to talk some things through before we start. Excuse us.”  
They all gather around John a few meters away from Mr. Prince.   
“You were right, the bacteria got into her another way.” John tells Sherlock.   
“Oh yes?”  
“Yes.”  
“How?” Kate questions.  
“You’re all set?” Mr. Prince requests impatiently.   
“Yes.” Sherlock fake grins at him and starts taking pictures of him from very weird angles and a close distance.   
“Not too close. I’m raw from crying.”"Oh, who's this?" Sherlock asks with a fake happy voice as he looks down to a cat that’s rubbing itself against his legs.   
“Sekhmet, named after the Egyptian goddess.” Mr. Prince explains.   
“How nice, was she Connie’s?” Kate questions after John gives them a sign with his head towards the cat and Mr. Prince nods. "Well, then she should be on the pictures too!" John suggests conspicuity inconspicuous and Mr. Prince picks up Sekhmet.   
“Sherlock, light reading?” John asks walking up behind Mr. Prince.   
“2.8.” Sherlock answers before taking another picture.   
The flash of the camera blinds Mr. Prince for a few seconds. “What the hell?”  
“Sorry.”  
John smells the cat’s paw while Mr. Prince is busy and makes Sherlock and Kate see it.   
“What’s going on?” Mr. Prince demands, finally having enough.  
“Actually I think we got what we came for. Excuse us.” John shouts in a rush before storming towards the front door.  
“What?”  
“Sherlock? Kate?” He shouts.  
“What?” Sherlock asks.  
“We’ve got deadlines!”  
“But you’ve not taken anything.” Mr. Prince questions confused.

“You think it was the cat. It wasn’t the cat.” Sherlock says turning to John as they’re walking down the street and finally catched their breath again.   
“Yes, yes it is! That’s how the tetanus got into her system. Its paws stink of disinfection.”  
“Lovely idea.” Sherlock chuckles. “I thought of it the minute I saw the scratches on her arm but it’s too random and too clever for her brother.”  
Now it is John’s turn to chuckle. “He murdered his sister for her money.”  
“Did he?”  
“Didn’t he?” Kate steps in the conversation.  
“Nope, it was revenge.”  
“re…who wanted revenge?” John enquires, now completely confused.   
“Raul, the houseboy. Kenny Prince was the butt of his sister’s jokes, week in, week out. Virtually a bullying campaign. Finally, they fell out. Badly. It’s all on the fan sites. She was going to disinherit Kenny. Raoul had grown used to a certain standard of living, so...”  
“Wait! Then what about the disinfectant? On the cat’s claws?”  
“Raoul keeps a very clean house. You came in through the kitchen door. Saw the state of that floor. Scrubbed within an inch of its life. You smell of disinfectant now…No, the cat doesn’t come into it. Raoul’s internet records, do, though.”  
John’s chest falls and Kate lays an arm around him in a supportive way and gives him a supporting smile while Sherlock wanders off.  
“Hope we can get a cab from here.”  
After finding a cab Sherlock tells the driver an address John and Kate both haven't heard before. Soon they stop in front of the Home Office building and Sherlock orders the driver to wait cause they won't need long.  
John and Kate just follow Sherlock in silence as they enter the secure building and wait till Sherlock is finished talking to a woman on the reception and joins them again. “My informant will be down here in a short time. He’ll hand me the internet records of Raoul.”  
“You can just walk in Home Office and demand the internet records of someone?” John questions in astonishment.  
Kate shakes her head at him and explains. “He said they owe him.”  
John rolls his eyes. “Of cause.”   
Kate just laughs and before Sherlock can explain further a man walks up to them. He’s wearing a suit and has a file in his hands. “Sherlock!”  
Sherlock turns around to shake the man’s hand.  
“Just what you requested.”  
“Thank you.”Before the man can say anything else Sherlock turns on his heels to leave the building again and John and Kate quickly hurry after him.

They spot Lestrade immediately in the nearly empty office of Scotland Yard and Sherlock waves the file around. “Raoul de Santos is your killer. Kenny Prince’s houseboy. Second autopsy shows it wasn’t Tetanus that poisoned Connie Prince. It was Botulinum toxin.”  
Kate and John follow him through the door not short after giving each other a confused look as Sherlock hands Lestrade the file.  
“We’ve been here before. Carl Powers? Tut-tut. Our bomber is repeating himself.”  
“So, how did he do it?” Lestrade requests.   
“Botox injection.” Sherlock claims.  
“Botox?” Lestrade grimaces and Kate gapes the word with him but without making any sound.  
“Botox is a diluted form of Botulinum!” Kate exclaims and her face light up, but then she frowns and steps beside Lestrade to look Sherlock in the face.  
“Among other things, Raoul de Santos was employed to give Connie her regular facial injections. My Home Office contact got me a complete record of Raoul’s internet purchases. He’s been ordering Botox in bulk for months. Bided his time, then upped the strength to a fatal dose.” Sherlock explains further.  
John also steps up beside them now and gives Kate who chuckles in disbelieve a knowing look.  
“Are you sure?” Lestrade exhales tired.   
“I am sure.”  
“Alright. My office.” Lestrade orders and wanders off into his office.  
Sherlock wants to follow him directly but John steps between him and the office door while Kate holds him back on his arm.  
“How long?” Kate growls at him with an angry face.  
“What?” Sherlock stills, looking from her face to her hand that still has a tight grip around his arm.  
“How long have you known?” John asks and Sherlock turns to him.  
“Well, this was quite a simple one, really. Like I said, the bomber’s repeated himself. That was a mistake.” He tries to get out of Kate’s grip.   
“But the hostage!” John gasps.  
Kate has enough and let go of his arm, but only to slightly push John aside and place herself directly in front of Sherlock and looks him deep in the eyes with a distasteful look. ”That old woman on the phone. She’s been there all this time!”  
“I knew I could save her. I also knew the bomber had given us twelve hours. I solved the case quickly, that gave me time to get on with other things. Don’t you see? We’re one up on him.” Sherlock snaps back before pushing his way past her.  
Kate takes a moment to take a breath and John places a hand on her shoulder, giving her a reassuring smile before following Sherlock inside Lestrade’s office.

When Kate joins them Sherlock is already on the phone with the old woman again but suddenly his facial expression changes and there is panic in his voice. "No, no, no…Tell me nothing about him! Nothing!" He just stares at the wall for a few moments listing to what’s sad before he jumps a little in his chair.   
“Hello??” he asks to the phone and checks if the call is still stable.   
“Sherlock?” Lestrade questions concerned.   
“What’s happened?” John steps closer to the table but Sherlock just swallows and slowly let the hand with the phone sink down from his face and let himself fall back in the chair.  
Kate gasps so loud she has to place her hands in front of her mouth and concentrate hard to not start to cry.  
Lestrade gets called out and has to leave to investigate the explosion, deciding that they will not come with him and need to rest for a bit.

The next morning Kate enters the living room to find John and Sherlock watching the news. The gas explosion is mentioned and she just sighs and goes in the kitchen to make herself a coffee.  
She hears John saying something and Sherlock answers. “Well, obviously I lost that round. Although technically I did solve the case…”  
“Are you kidding me?” Kate snaps from the kitchen.  
“He killed the old lady because she started to describe him. Just once he put himself in the firing line.”  
“What do you mean?” John enquires.  
“Well, usually he must stay above it or he organizes these things but no one has direct contact.”  
“So what? The Connie Prince murder? He arranged that? Do people come to him wanting their crimes fixed up like booking a hotel?”  
“Novel.” In the meanwhile, Kate made her way back to the kitchen with a toast and a coffee and sits down on Sherlock's armrest to look at the telly where Raoul de Santos is taken by the police.

“Taking his time this time.” Sherlock groans bored.  
“Anything on the Carl Powers case?” John breaks his look from the telly to look at Sherlock.  
“Nothing. All the living classmates checked. Can’t spot a connection.”  
“Maybe the killer was older than Carl?” Kate offers.  
“Thought had accured.”  
“So why is he doing this then? Playing this game with you? Do you think he wants to be caught?” John hesitates.  
“I think he wants to be distracted.”  
“I hope you’ll be very happy together.” Kate says half joking.  
“Sorry, what?”"There are lives at stake, Sherlock! Actual human lives! Jus…Just so I know: Do you care about them at all?" John growls, now standing."Will caring about them help save them?"  
“No.”  
“Then I continue not to make that mistake.”  
“And you find that easy, do you?” Kate snaps from beside him.  
“Yes! Very. Is that news to you?” Sherlock questions, looking between her and John in wonder.  
“No.” John laughs.  
After a moment Sherlock’s face clears up and he snickers. “I disappointed you.”  
John takes a deep breath and looks down. “Good deduction, yeah.”  
“Don’t make people into heroes, John. Heroes don’t exist and if they did I wouldn’t be one of them.”  
The pink phone makes a sound.  
“Excellent.” Sherlock nearly shouts and checks the message. “View of the Themse. South bank, somewhere between Southwark Bridge and Waterloo…you check the papers. I’ll look online.”  
But neither Kate nor John make any move.  
“Oh. You’re angry with me, so you won’t help. Not much cop, this caring lark.”John loses his inner conflict and huffs before making his way to the pile of newspapers while Sherlock is already quickly looking through his or rather Kates phone, that he snatches out of her hand.  
“That’s my phone?” Kate states while John is mumbling the news he’s finding to himself.  
Sherlock just ignores her. “Nothing.”  
He holds the phone to his ear.” It’s me. Anything been found near St Paul’s? Or the river?”  
You can’t hear what Lestrade tells him but soon Sherlock gives you a sign to get your things.

A bit later you find yourself by the river, walking towards a body that’s lying on the shore.  
“You reckon this is connected then? The bomber?” Lestrade greets them.  
“Must be. Odd though, he hasn’t been in touch.” Sherlock answers.  
“But we must assume some poor bugger’s primed to explode, yeah?”  
Sherlock bends down to look at the body. “Yes.”  
“Any ideas?” Kate exhales.  
“Seven so far.”  
“Seven?” Lestrade gasps and Kate thinks that she’ll never get tired of his confused face.  
Sherlock’s suddenly all over the corpse like a blood-hound. Once he’s done examining the body and steps back he nods for John and Kate to take a look and concentrates on his phone.  
“Dead about twenty-four hours. Maybe a bit longer.” Kate declares.  
“Did he drown?” John asks in confusion.  
“Apparently not. Not enough of the Thames in his lungs.” Lestrade starts to report what he knows till now and Kate finishes by saying. ”Asphyxiated.”  
John nods approvingly. “Yes. I’d agree. There’s quite a bit of bruising around the nose and mouth... And there are more bruises...here and here...”  
“Fingertips.” Sherlock suddenly throws in.  
John just talks on and ignores Sherlock mumbling. “He’s mid-Fifties, I’d say. Not in the best condition.”  
“He’s been in the river a while which has destroyed most of the data...” Kate continues but is cut off by Sherlock. “But I’ll tell you one thing. That lost Vermeer painting is a fake!”  
“What?” Lestrade gasps again and Kate just has to chortle.  
“We need to identify the corpse. Find out who his friends and associates are…”  
“Wait, wait! What painting? What’re you on about?”  
“It’s all over the place. Haven’t you seen the posters? Dutch Old Master. It was supposed to have been destroyed centuries ago and now it’s turned up. Worth thirty million pounds.”  
“Ok. So...What's that got to do with the stiff?”  
“Everything. Have you ever heard of the Golem?”  
“Golem?” Kate, John and Lestrade ask in union with the same confused facial expression.  
“It’s a horror story, isn’t it? What are you saying?” John adds.  
“Jewish folk-story. A gigantic man made of clay. It’s also the name of an assassin. Real name Oskar Dzundza. One of the deadliest assassins in the world.” Sherlock explains, gesturing at the corpse. “That’s his trademark style.”  
“This was a hit?” Lestrade questions.  
“Definitely. The Golem squeezes the breath out of his victims with his bare hands.”  
“BUT what’s this got to do with that painting? I don’t see…” Lestrade whines but is interrupted by Sherlock.  
“You do see. You just don’t observe.”  
“All right, girls. Keep calm.” Kate tries to calm the situation and John helps her. “Sherlock? Wanna take us through it?”  
“What do we know about this corpse? The killer’s not left us with much. Just shirt and trousers. They’re pretty formal - maybe he was going out for the night. But the trousers are heavy duty. Polyester. Nasty. Shirt’s the same. Cheap. And they’re both too big for him. So, some kind of standard-issue uniform. Dressed for work, then. But what work? There's a loop on his belt. Must be for a walkie-talkie.”  
“Tube driver?” Lestrade replies and Sherlock pulls a face.  
“Security guard?” John offers now.  
“More likely. That’d be borne out by his backside.”  
“His backside?” Kate chuckles.  
“Flabby. You’d think he led a sedentary life - yet the soles of his feet and the nascent varicose veins in his legs say otherwise. So, a lot of walking and a lot of sitting around. Security guard’s looking good. And the watch helps. The alarm shows he did regular night shifts.”  
“Why regular? Maybe he just set his alarm like that the night before he died?” Lestrade mocks.  
“No, no. Buttons are stiff. Hardly touched. He set the alarm like that a long time ago. His routine never varied. But there’s something else. Killer must’ve been disturbed otherwise he’d have stripped the corpse completely. There was some kind of badge or insignia on the shirt front that he tore off. Suggests the dead man worked somewhere recognizable. Some kind of institution.” He pulls a wet ball of paper out his pocket. ”Found this inside his trouser pocket. Soaked by the river but still recognizable."  
Kate steps closer to take a look. “Tickets?”  
Sherlock grins. "Ticket Stubs. He worked in a museum. Or a gallery. Did a quick check. The Hickman Gallery has reported one of its attendants as missing. Alex Woodbridge. Tonight they unveil the rediscovered masterpiece. Now, why would anyone want to pay the Golem to suffocate a perfectly ordinary gallery attendant? Inference: the dead man knew something about it. Something that would stop the owner charging thirty million pounds for it. The picture’s a fake.”  
“Fantastic!” John exclaims.  
“Meretricious.” Kate adds.  
“And a happy new year.” Lestrade shouts sarcastically.  
“Poor sod.” John sighs.  
Lestrade reaches for his phone. “I’d better get my feelers for this Golem character.”   
“Pointless. You’ll never find him. But I know a man who can.” Sherlock stops him.  
“Who?”  
“Me.” Sherlock grins and Kate and John roll their eyes.

Back in the cab John and Kate expected to drive to the gallery straight away but Sherlock makes a quick stop and hands a beggar fifty pounds.  
“What are you doing?” Kate asks as they walk back to the cab.  
“Investing…Now we go to the gallery.” Sherlock confirms, but then turns back to them. “Have you got any cash?”  
Kate huffs and John rolls his eyes. “You gotta be kidding me.”

When they finally arrive at the gallery Sherlock stops John from getting out of the cab. “No John, I need you to find out all you can about the gallery attendant. Lestrade will give you the address.”  
“Oh, ok.” He nods and sits back. “See you later.”  
The cab drives off and Kate follows Sherlock towards the gallery. “And now what?”  
“We sneak in the through the backdoor.”  
“Do you think that will be that easy? It’s a gallery. I guess it’s well secured.”  
“We’re Sherlock Holmes and Kate Taylor.” Sherlock frowns and looks at her as if what he says doesn’t need any explanation."Yeah, your right." Kate shrugs and they look for a way in.To their luck, the backdoor is open due to some workers that are carrying stuff inside. Once they walked through the door they find themselves in a long corridor.  
“Ok. “Sherlock whispers and looks around.  
As Kate hears someone coming she takes Sherlock’s hand and drags him into the next room she can find, luckily the door wasn’t locked.  
They can hear someone pass the door and once they think the person is far enough they start to look around.  
“Brilliant! The art of disguise is knowing how to hide in plain sight.” Sherlock states as he holds up a security guard uniform. “There’s another one for you. Strip.”  
“Whoa there, detective. If you wanted me naked you could’ve said something sooner...” Kate jokes and takes another uniform out of a shelf and begins to strip down her own cloth.  
Sherlock just stares at her with a red face. “I didn’t mean…”  
“I know, Sherlock. I was joking!” Kate assures him laughing, getting rid of her pants. “Now come on and strip too, it’s not like we’re 12.”  
Sherlock does as he’s told and as they’re both in full uniform they start to look through the gallery unnoticed by anyone. Soon later they finally find the painting they were looking for in a separated room and look at it for a while.

“Don’t you have something to do?” a voice interrupts them.  
“Just admiring the view.” Sherlock smirks and turns around.  
“Yes. Lovely. Now get back to work, we’re open tonight.”  
Kate raises an eyebrow. “Doesn’t it bother you?”  
“What?”  
“That the painting’s a fake?” She phrases bluntly.  
“What?”  
“It's a fake. It has to be. It’s the only explanation. Are you in charge…?” Sherlock walks closer to her and reads her name tag. “Miss Wenceslas?”  
“Who are you?”  
“Alex Woodbridge knew that the painting was a fake, so someone sent the Golem to take care of him. Was it you?”  
“‘Golem’? What the hell are you talking about?”  
“Or are you working for someone else? Did you fake it for them?”  
“It is not a fake!”  
“It is a fake. I don’t know why but there’s something wrong with it. There has to be.”  
“What the hell are you on about? You know I could have you sacked? On the spot?”  
“Not a problem.” Kate laughs now.  
“No?”  
“No. We don’t work here, you see.” Sherlock smiles and takes Kates hand to walk away. “Just popped in to give you some friendly advice.”  
“How did you get in?”  
“Please.” Kate and Sherlock both say full of sarcasm.   
“I want to know!”  
“The art of disguise is knowing how to hide in plain sight.” Kate quotes what Sherlock said earlier and he smirks.  
“Who are you?” Miss Wenceslas requests as the two of them walk away from her.  
“Sherlock Holmes and Kate Taylor.” Sherlock shouts and starts to strip down his uniform.  
“Am I supposed to be impressed?”  
“You should be. Have a nice day.” Kate laughs and also starts to strip.  
They leave through a door and throw the last items of their uniforms away before they hear screaming of real security guards.  
“Shit!” Kate laughs and before she can see is dragged around by Sherlock faster than she can run, nearly flying after him like a flag in the wind.  
She would payed to see that. Sherlock Holmes and Kate Taylor running for their life in only their underwear and their tops.  
Kate sees the door were they left their stuff and manages to bring Sherlock to a stop. “Wait! Our cloth.”  
They just quickly hop inside, grab their close and run out of the backdoor, pushing a worker aside and probably breaking an ancient artifact, he was carrying, in the process.  
Outside Sherlock manages to throw his coat over Kate and luckily they find a cab first try and jump in, ignoring the strange look the driver gives them to their current state.  
As they drive away from the gallery and catch their breath Kate starts to laugh deeply and Sherlock joins in.  
They manage to get dressed again and short before they arrive back at 221b Kate’s phone makes a sound.  
“It’s Mycroft. I should really take another look on that Andrew West case. Are you good for now?” She asks Sherlock who nods.  
So when Sherlock gets out of the cab Kate drives to Andrew West’s address to talk to his fiancée.

 

“He wouldn’t. He just wouldn’t.” Andrew West’s fiancée explains Kate.  
“Stranger things have happened.”  
“Westie wasn’t a traitor. It’s a horrible thing to say.”  
“I’m sorry. But you must understand, that’s…”  
“That’s what they think, isn’t it? His bosses.”  
Kate nods and sighs sadly. “He was a young man, about to get married. He had debts.”  
“Everyone’s got debts! And Westie would never have wanted to clear them by selling out his country.”  
“Can you....can you tell me exactly what happened? That night?”  
“We were having a night in. Just watching a DVD. He usually falls asleep, you know but he sat through this one. He was...quiet. Out of the blue he said he had to go and see someone.” She explains and starts crying.  
“And you’ve no idea who?”  
She shakes her head and Kate thinks for a while, but since this wasn’t really clearing up anything she decides to leave the poor woman alone.  
As they walk to the front door a man enters the house. “Oh. Hi Luce. You ok, love?”  
Kate frowns.  
“Who is this?” He questions towards Kate.  
“Kate Taylor. Hi!” She introduces herself.  
“This is my brother. Joe. Kate’s trying to find out what happened to Westie, Joe.” Luce explains.  
“You with the police?” Joe grumbles.  
Kate struggles. “Sort of?”  
“Well, tell them to get off their arses! It’s bloody ridiculous.” He replies and walks inside.  
“I’ll do my best. Well...thanks for your help. And again, I’m very sorry.” Kate assures Luce and turns to go.  
“He didn’t steal those things, Miss Taylor.” She stops her and Kate turns around as she keeps talking. “I knew Westie. He was a good man. He was my good man.”  
Kate gives her a kind nod and leaves with a thoughtful expression.

When Kate finally arrives at home it’s already dark and as she enters the flat Sherlock nearly runs into her. “We’re leaving again.”  
She only groans but follows him downstairs and outside.  
John who just got out of a cab walks over to them. “Alex Woodbridge didn’t know anything special about paintings.”  
“And?” Sherlock digs.  
“And?”  
“Is that it? He had no habits, no hobbies, no personality?”  
“Give us a chance. He was an amateur astronomer.”  
“Hold that cab.” He orders John and Kate watches as Sherlock approaches a beggar in front of their house, which she recognizes as the same beggar then before.  
The beggar hands him something and he walks towards Kate and the cab. “Fortunately, I’ve not been idle. Come on.”

A short cab ride later they find themselves in a rather poor and criminal looking district in London.  
“Beautiful isn’t it?” Sherlock says looking at the sky and the stars.  
“I thought you didn’t care about things like that?” Kate states and John nods enthusiastically.  
“Doesn’t mean I can’t appreciate it!”  
“Listen, Alex Woodbridge had a message on the answer phone at his flat. A Professor Cairns…” John changes the topic.  
“This way.” Sherlock orders and point in an alley.  
“Nice. Nice part of town. Any time you want to explain…” John mutters sarcastically as he’s looking around.  
“Homeless network, really is indispensable.” Sherlock explains.  
“Homeless network?”  
“My eyes and ears all over the city.”  
“Right. That’s clever! So, you scratch their backs…”  
“Yes, and then disinfect myself.”  
As they look around the area with flashlights they see homeless people sleeping and trash but then something in the back catches Kate’s eye. There’s a shadow shuffling away. “Sherlock, come on!”  
They creep after him but as the shadow turns they hide and press themselves against a wall.  
“What was he doing? Sleeping rough?” John whisper jells.  
“He has a very distinctive look. Needs to hide somewhere tongues won’t wag. Much.” Sherlock shrugs.  
John searches for something in his jacket pockets. “Oh shit.”  
“What?” Kate whispers.  
“Wish I’d…”  
Sherlock reaches into his coat and hands John his army pistol. “Don’t mention it.”  
Kate shrugs, reaches into her little backpack and pulls out a gun, loads it and looks back at the two men. “Ok boys, let’s do this.”  
Sherlock and John just stare at her for a moment.  
Suddenly there’s the sound of a car and the Golem runs away. As fast as they can they run after him but all they see is the car driving away with the Golem inside.  
“No! No! No! No!” Sherlock screams and Kate starts to shoot and try to kit the car wheels but the car is too fast.  
“Could take weeks to find him again!” Sherlock whines.  
John clears his throat. “Or not. I might have an idea where he’s going.”  
“What?”  
“I told you. Someone left Alex Woodbridge a message. Can’t be that many Professor Cairns in the book.”  
“Come on.”

Kate googles and finds out that Professor Cairns works at the Planetarium so they drive there. As they enter they can see the shadow of the Golem attacking a woman and Sherlock screams “Golem!”, but the light from the universe projection is blinding them and changes too fast, so they can’t really see him. The voice in the background, explaining facts about the universe, also isn’t really helpful at concentrating.  
“I can’t see him. I go around!” John announces.  
“Yeah go!”  
“Who do you work for this time, Dzundza?”  
The projection changes and Kate can see the Golem right behind Sherlock. “Oh shit, SHERLOCK!”  
The enormous hand of the golem reaches for Sherlock’s face, who’s now struggling to get out of this grip. He starts to panic since he can’t breathe.  
Suddenly Kate’s in front of them with her gun pointed at the Golem. “Let him go. Or I will kill you.”  
The Golem kicks the gun out of her hand the moment she shots, let’s go of Sherlock and pushed Kate away.  
As he goes to suffocate Sherlock again after kicking him to the ground but then John jumps on his back and is chocking him. Sherlock reaches for the gun and the Golem throws John off and runs out of the planetarium.  
“Shit.” John groans and lays down.  
“Are you okay?” Sherlock asks the both of them and hands Kate her gun back.  
“Yeah. Just a few more scratches.” Kate answers, checking a wound on her arm.  
“Yes. I’m good.” John nods.  
“Ok. I’ll call Lestrade to meet us at the gallery. This has to stop.” Sherlock announces and walks out of the planetarium.

“It’s a fake. It has to be.” Sherlock says turning towards Miss Wenceslas.  
“That painting has been subjected to every test known to science…” She defends herself.  
“It’s a very good fake then. You know this, don’t you? This is you, isn’t it?”  
Miss Wenceslas turns to Lestrade now. “Inspector, my time is being wasted. Would you mind showing yourself, and your friends, out? Before these two…” She points at Sherlock and Kate. “Decide to get naked again.”  
“Naked?” Lestrade and John question in union. "Well, naked is a big word. We still had our underwear and tops on, ok?”  
“Why the hell were you running around in the gallery in only your underwear?” John gapes."We dressed up as security guards, and as good citizens didn't want to steal the uniforms." Sherlock smirks.  
The pink phone rings again. Finally.  
Sherlock picks it up and immediately starts talking. “The painting is a fake. It’s a fake, that’s why Woodbridge and Cairns were killed.”  
Silence.  
“Oh come on, proving it is just a detail - I’ve solved it! I’ve figured it out. The painting’s a fake, that’s the answer, that’s why they were killed.”  
Silence.  
“Ok! I’ll prove you. Give me time, will you give me time?”  
“Ten.” Suddenly the voice of a child sounds through the speaker.  
“It’s a kid. Oh God, it’s a kid.” Lestrade panics.  
“What did he say?” John asks furiously.  
“Ten.” Sherlock repeats.  
“Nine.” The kid’s voice speaks again.  
“It’s a countdown. He’s giving me time.”  
“Jesus.” Kate swears.  
“It’s a fake, it’s a fake, how do I prove it’s a fake, how??” Sherlock mutters, more to himself.  
“Eight.”  
He races towards Miss Wenceslas. “This child will die. Tell me why the painting is a fake, tell me.”  
“Seven.”  
She’s about to open her mouth when Sherlock interrupts her. “No! Shut up! Say nothing. Only counts if I work it out! Must be possible!” He turns back to the painting. “Must be staring me in the face!”  
“Six.”  
“How? Alex Woodbridge knew. But how? How??”  
“Five.”  
“He’s speeding up.” Lestrade informs impatiently.  
“Sherlock!” Kate shouts panicked.  
“Four.”  
“Oh! In the planetarium! You heard what it said! Oh, that’s brilliant. That’s gorgeous!” Sherlock laughs, hands John the phone and starts typing on his own.  
“Three.”  
“What’s brilliant? What is?” John frowns, holding the phone like it’s the bomb itself.  
“Two.”  
“Oh, this is beautiful. I love this!” Sherlock is clearly fangirling.  
“Sherlock!” Lestrade and Kate shout in union now.  
“One.”  
Sherlock grabs the phone. ”The Van Buren supernova!”  
Silence.Then the kid starts to cry. "Help me! Are you there? Help me. Please!”  
“There you go. Find out where he is, go and pick him up.” He hands the phone to Lestrade, who walks away with it.  
“The Van Buren supernova, it’s called. A huge star blowing up. Only appeared in the sky in 1858!” Sherlock explains, showing around a picture on his phone.  
“So how could it have been painted in the 1640s?” John chuckles in disbelieve.  
Kate’s phone makes a sound, it’s another message from Mycroft: ‘My patience is wearing thin. Mycroft.’ She sighs. One battle over and the other one is calling.

Kate decides to take a look at the place West was found, so she splits with the others and takes the cab to the tube rails.  
“This is where West was found?” She enquires the worker that's showing her around.  
“Yeah. You gonna be long?”  
“Might be.”  
“You with the police then?”  
“Sort of?”  
“I hate ‘em.” The worker admins, pulling a face.  
“The police?”  
“No! Jumpers. People who chuck themselves in front of the trains. Selfish bastards.”  
“Well, that’s one way of looking at it.”  
“I mean it! It’s alright for them. Over in a split second. Strawberry jam all over the lines. What about the drivers? They’ve gotta live with it, haven’t they?”  
Kate crunches down and looks at the rails. “Speaking of strawberry jam. There’s no blood on the line. Has it been cleaned off?”  
“No. There wasn’t much. But I want to spare a young lady like you the details.”  
“Trust me. I’ve seen worse. I’m a pathologist.” Kate states unimpressed.  
“Oh.” He worker huffs, clearly embarrassed.   
“You said his head was smashed in?” Kate goes on.  
“It was. But there wasn’t much blood.”  
“Ok…”  
“I’ll leave you to it, then. Give us a shout when you’re off.”  
“Alright.” Kate gets up and walks along the rails. “Right. Andrew West got on the train…somewhere, or did he? There was no ticket on the body. How did he end up here?”  
Suddenly there's a sound and the changing points catch Kate's eye and she grins. The points!  
“The points!” A voice exclaims.  
“Yes!” Kate agrees happily till she gets that that wasn’t a voice in her head and turns around to see Sherlock towering above her smiling.  
“I knew you’d get there eventually.” He smiles.  
“Eventually?”  
“West wasn’t killed here. That’s why there was so little blood.”  
“How long have you been following me?”  
“Since the start. You don’t think I’d give up on a case like this one just to spite my brother, do you? Come on, John’s waiting for us. We got a bit of burglary to do.” Sherlock exclaims, already walking away.

After Kate told the workers that she’s off she follows John and Sherlock.  
They walk down a street as Sherlock speaks again.” We know the missile defense plans haven’t left the country. Mycroft’s people would have heard about it. Despite what people think, this country does still have a secret service.”  
“Yeah, I know. I’ve met them.” John adds sarcastically.  
“Which means whoever stole that memory stick can't sell it or doesn't know what to do with it. My money's on the latter.” Sherlock turns towards a house. “We’re here.”  
“Where?”  
Sherlock walks towards the door.  
“Sherlock, what if there’s someone in?” Kate hushes.  
“There isn’t.” Sherlock reports and John and Kate look at each other quite unsure.  
Sherlock breaks the front door open and they walk inside.  
“Where are we?” John finally asks.  
“Oh sorry, didn’t I say? Joe Harrison’s flat.”  
“Joe…?” Kate gasps confused.  
“The brother of West’s fiancée. He stole the memory stick. And killed his prospective brother-in-law.”  
Sherlock looks at the woodwork of the windows. There’s blood.  
“Why did he do it?”   
Suddenly there’s a sound coming from the front door.  
“Let’s ask him.” Sherlock offers with a smirk as he sees John and Kate panic.  
As Joe enters the room and sees them he’s ready to throw his bike at them but Kate’s fast and has her gun out, unlocked and directed at Joe Harrison faster than anyone can see.  
“Don’t. Seriously…don’t” She warns him.  
He puts the bike down and John, who’s now also pointing his gun at Joe, makes a sign for him to sit down on the couch.  
Once he sits Kate locks her gun, swirls it around and puts it back in her pocket. John follows her example and also puts his gun away.  
“It wasn’t meant to...oh God. What’s Lucy gonna say? Jesus.” Joe starts to panic.  
“Why did you kill him?” Sherlock demands.  
“It was an accident.”  
Sherlock scoffs.  
“I swear it was.”  
“But stealing the plans for the missile defense program, wasn’t an accident. Was it?” Kate throws in.  
“I started pushing. Drugs, I mean. The bike thing is great cover. But...I dunno. I dunno how it started but I got out of my depth. I owed people thousands. Serious people. Then, at Westie’s engagement do he started talking about his job. Usually he was so careful before. But that night, after a few pints he really opened up. Told me about these missile plans. Beyond top secret. He showed me the memory stick and waved it in front of me. I mean, you hear about these things getting lost. Turning up on rubbish dumps and stuff but there it was! And I thought…Well, I knew it’d be worth a fortune. It was pretty easy to get the thing off him. He was so plastered. Next time I saw him, I could see by the look on his face that he knew.”  
“What happened?” John asks.  
“I was gonna call an ambulance, but it was too late. I just didn’t have a clue what to do…so I dragged him in here and I just sat in the dark, thinking.”  
“When a neat little idea popped into your head...” Sherlock smirks. “Carrying Andrew West a long way away from here. The body would’ve gone on for ages if the train hadn’t hit a stretch of line with curves…”  
“And points.” Kate adds.  
“Exactly.”  
“You still have it then? The memory stick?” John questions hopefully.  
He nods.  
“Fetch it for me, if you wouldn’t mind.” Sherlock says.  
Joe goes to get it and Sherlock leans towards the others. “Distraction over. Back to the game.”  
John frowns at Sherlock. “Maybe that’s over too. There’s been nothing from the bomber.”  
“Five pips, John. Remember? It’s a countdown and we’ve only had four.

After Kate texts Mycroft that they have the plans they return to the flat to wait for someone of Mycroft’s people to come get the stick.  
Kate gets up as the doorbell rings but jumps when Sherlock starts shouting at the TV.  
“Of course he’s not the kid’s dad! Look at the turn-ups on his jeans!”  
“I knew it was dangerous.” John chortles.  
“Mh?”  
“Getting you into trashy TV.” Is the last thing Kate hears before she reaches downstairs with a smile on her face and opens the door. To her surprise, it's Mycroft himself.  
“Hey there, Mycie. What’s good?” She jokes.  
“Kate. Just give me the Stick.” He groans annoyed.  
She gets it out of her pocket. “Ok, ok government man. Here you go. It was a pleasure working with you, please rate us on mycroftneedstolearnhowtosaythankyou.com”  
“I am thankful.” Mycroft rolls his eyes. “Really. This saves the country."  
“It sure does. Will be get knighted now?” Kate holds back a smirk.  
“No.” He just states emotionless."Well, that's sad." She answers with a fake sad voice.  
Mycroft hesitates and steps back. “Yes. Have a great night then, Kate.”  
“Sure will.” Kate yells after him as she turns around and closes the door.

As she bursts through the flat door Sherlock is already on her toes. “Did they pick the memory stick up?”  
“Yes, it was Mycroft himself.”  
“Would you believe that?” John sounds impressed.  
“You. He was over the moon. Threatened us with a Knighthood.” Kate fake raves.  
Sherlock does a dramatic fake sigh. “Again.”Kate laughs and both men join in.

“I’m still waiting.” John throws in.  
“Mh?” Sherlock and Kate both turn towards him.  
“For you to admit that a little knowledge about the solar system and you’d have cleared up the fake painting a lot quicker.” He says towards Sherlock and Kate gives an approving shrug.  
“Didn’t do you any good, did it?” Sherlock raises an eyebrow.  
“Well, but I’m not the world’s only consulting detective.”"True." Sherlock smiles and for some reason, it makes Kate grin even more.  
John gets up. “I won’t be in for tea. I’m going to Sarah’s. There’s some of that risotto left in the fridge. Oh and milk. We need milk.”  
“I’ll get some.” Kate assures him."No, I'll do it." Sherlock immediately speaks up.  
“Really?” Kate and John both frown at him.  
“Really.”  
John smiles. “And some beans too?”  
Sherlock hums approvingly and Kate gives John a shrug before he leaves.

As soon as the sound of the closing door is heard Sherlock pulls out Johns laptop and starts typing something.  
“What are you doing?” Kate asks walking over to him.  
“’Found. The Bruce-Partington plans. Please collect. The pool. Midnight.’ What?? I just gave the Stick to Mycroft and what has the bomber to do with it?” Kate gasps.  
“First of all, no you didn’t.” Sherlock shows her the exact same looking Stick. “The government always uses the same so I always have one here if needed. And it was the bomber all along. Right under our nose.”  
“Mycroft’s gonna be so mad, Sherlock. So mad!”   
“Getting to Moriarty is far more important than anything that has to do with Mycroft.”  
Kate groans and Sherlock gets up to grab his coat.  
“Why didn’t you want John to know?”  
“He would just be angry again. Come on.” He takes her hand to drag her with him.  
“You know? I’m perfectly able to walk on my own.” Kate mutters but still doesn’t let go of his hand. “And John’s not the only one who’s angry!”

Soon later Kate finds herself breaking into a swimming pool with Sherlock.  
“You know, some people do this for fun. Go skinny dipping and shit. So if your boyfriend doesn’t show we could still…”  
Sherlock gives her a sign to be quiet and she reaches for her gun in her pocket, but still leaves it there, while looking around.  
“Little getting-to-know-you present. It’s what the whole thing’s been for, isn’t it? All your little puzzles. Making me dance. All meant to distract me from this.” Sherlock shouts into the darkness.  
A door opens and both of them turn around only to see John walking into the room.  
“John?” Kate is the first to speak and gives Sherlock a disbelieving look.  
“’Evening.” John greets them.  
“It can’t be…” Kate whispers.  
“This is a turn-up, isn't it, Sherlock?” John’s voice is stiff. Too stiff.  
“John? What the hell are you - ?” Sherlock starts.  
“Bet you never saw this coming.”  
Sherlock and Kate slowly step closer and see that John doesn’t look too comfortable, is wearing a very very big jacket and an earpiece. He slowly opens the jacket and reveals explosives and a red laser light dancing over it.  
Now Kate pulls out her gun, unlocks it and turns around to find the source of the light."She's quite a handful, isn't she? Just as impulsive as you but with more fire, so maybe she’s more like me. She should be more careful. Watch after your little toy, Sherlock.”  
Sherlock reaches for the gun and takes it from Kate, locks it and puts it in his pocket. Kate turns towards John again with a growl.  
“What would you like me to make him say next?” John’s sweating now. “Gottle of Geer. Gottle of Geer. Gottle…”  
“Stop it!” Sherlock shouts.  
“Nice touch this. The pool where little Carl died. I stopped him laughing. I can stop John Watson too. Stop his heart.” John swallows hard.  
“Who are you?” Sherlock exclaims turning around on the spot.  
Another door opens and a man steps in, but is still covered by the shadows. “I gave you my number. Thought you might call.”  
Slowly he steps into the light. ” Is that a British Army Browning L9A1 in your pocket? Or are you just pleased to see me?”  
“Both.” Sherlock admins while pointing the gun at him.  
Kate who was just gaping beside Sherlock is finally able to speak again. “Jim?!”  
“Jim Moriarty. Hi.” He grins and gives them a wave.  
Sherlock frowns and follows him with the gun as he’s slowly walking towards them.  
“Jim. From the hospital? Really, did I make such a fleeting impression? But then, that was rather the point.” Jim starts to explain.  
“You used me!” Kate states in disbelieve.  
Sherlock looks over to John to check if the laser light is still there.  
“Don’t be silly. Someone else is holding the rifle. I don’t like getting my hands dirty.” Moriarty reports, completely ignoring Kate.  
“I kissed you!” Kate spits out disgusted.  
Moriarty groans and finally looks at her. “Yes, I sure did. Kissing you was really nice and I wished we had time for more.” He turns towards Sherlock. “You should try sometime.”  
Kate just gives him a disgusted look.  
He pauses and stares at Sherlock for a moment. “I’ve given you a glimpse, Sherlock. Just a teensy glimpse of what I’ve got going on out there in the big bad world. I’m a specialist, you see. Like you.”  
“Dear Jim, please could you fix it for me to dispose of my boyfriend’s nasty sister...?” Sherlock speaks up now and Kate frowns.  
Jim grins and steps closer.  
“Dear Jim, please could you fix it for me to disappear to South America...?”  
“Just so.”  
“A consulting criminal! Brilliant!”  
“Isn’t it? No-one ever gets to me. And no-one ever will.”  
“I did.”  
“You’ve come the closest. But now you’re in my way.”  
“Thank you.”  
“Didn’t mean it as a compliment.”  
“Yes, you did.”  
“Yeah, okay, I did. But the flirting’s over, Sherlock. Daddy’s had enough now. I’ve shown you what I can do. I cut loose all those people, all those little problems, even thirty million quid just to get you to come out and play. So take this as a friendly warning, my dear. Back off.”  
Sherlock huffs.  
“Although, I’ve loved this. This game of ours. It’s been a treat.”  
Moriarty looks at Kate again.” Playing Jim from IT.” Laughing he looks back at Sherlock. “Playing gay. Did you like the little touch? With the underwear?”  
“People have died.” Sherlock states.  
“That’s what people do!” Moriarty shouts.  
“I will stop you.” Sherlock shouts after a pause and nods towards the gun he’s still pointing at Moriarty.  
“No. You won’t.” Moriarty laughs.  
“No, I would most likely miss but Kate will.” He hands Kate the gun. She’s surprised but takes the gun back with pleasure.  
Sherlock looks at John. “You ok?”  
John doesn’t say anything and Moriarty exhales and steps up right behind him. “You can talk, Johnny boy. Go ahead.”  
John gives a small nod.  
“Take it.” Sherlock says and fishes the Stick out of his pocket to hand Moriarty.  
Moriarty walks past John to take the Stick from Sherlock. “What? Oh. That. Missile plans.”  
He pauses before shouting. “Boring. Could’ve picked them up any time.” and throws the stick in the pool.  
John rushes forward and throws his arms around Moriarty. “Run!”  
Moriarty just laughs. “Good! Very good!”  
“If your sniper pulls that trigger, Mr. Moriarty, we both go up.” John threatens.  
“Isn’t he sweet? I can see why you like having him around. But then, people do get so sentimental about their pets. So touchingly loyal. But - OOPS - you’ve rather shown your hand, there, Dry Watson.”  
Another Laser appears on Kate and Sherlock’s foreheads as they can tell by Johns look.  
“Gotcha.”  
John moves back and Moriarty straightens his suit a little annoyed. “Westwood. Do you know what happens if you don't leave me alone, Sherlock? To you?”  
“Oh, let me guess. I’ll be killed.”  
“Killed, nah, don’t be obvious. I mean, I'm gonna kill you anyway, someday - don't want to rush it, though, saving it up for something special. No no no, if you don’t stop prying, I will burn you. I will burn the heart out of you.”  
“I am reliably informed I don’t have one.”  
“But we both know that’s not quite true.” Moriarty smirks and looks at Kate and then at John.  
“Well,” He sighs. ”I’d better be off. So nice to have a proper chat.”  
“What if I were to shoot you now? Right now?” Kate snaps.  
“Then you could cherish the look of surprise on my face.” He mimics a shocked face and turns to Sherlock. “Because I would be surprised, Sherlock. Really I would. And just a teensy bit disappointed. ‘Course, you wouldn’t be able to cherish it for very long.” He nods towards John and the explosives and turns to leave. “Ciao, Sherlock Holmes.”  
“Catch you...later.” Sherlock whispers after him.  
“No. You won’t.” Moriarty’s voice echoes through the pool.  
A door is heard and Kate lets her gun sink while Sherlock reaches for John. Kate lays the gun on the floor and helps Sherlock to tear the explosives from John’s body.  
“Alright?” Sherlock asks but John doesn’t answer. “Are you alright?”  
“Yeah. Yeah, I’m fine. I’m fine! Sherlock…”   
Sherlock pushes the explosives away from them and Kate drags John into a hug.  
“Thank god.” She mutters in his neck.  
Sherlock rushes off while Kate helps John to sit down.

Sherlock returns and Kate looks up at him. “Are you alright?”  
He’s pacing around. "Me? Yeah, I'm fine."  
He turns to John and starts to stutter. “That was...what you did...what you offered to do. That was...good.”  
“Glad no-one saw that…” John huffs.  
“Hm?”  
“Both of you ripping all my clothes off in a darkened swimming pool. People might talk.” John jokes and Kate laughs.  
“They do little else.”  
Suddenly Kate spots a laser light on John’s chest. “Sherlock!” As she looks over to him she sees one on him too and in his expression she reads that she must have one on her too.  
She gets up and picks up the gun again as the door bursts open and Moriarty enters again. “Sorry, guys. I am soooo changeable. It’s a weakness with me. But, to be fair to myself, it’s my only weakness.” He laughs. “You can’t be allowed to continue. You just can’t. I would try to convince you but...everything I have to say has already crossed your mind.”   
More laser lights appear on each of them and Kate searches for Sherlock’s eyes to meet hers. Once he does they stare at each other for a short time and Kate tries to imply what she has in mind. They both look at John who gives them a small nod.  
Sherlock turns around to Moriarty. “Then probably my answer has crossed yours.”  
Kate points her gun at the explosives, halfway between them.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Feedback?


	10. Don't Freak Out!

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> It has Elements from the beginning of S02E01.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NusxTNSPEdc

Kate keeps her focus on the explosives and waits for a sign from Sherlock who’s staring at Moriarty.  
Suddenly music starts playing. Stayin’ Alive” by the Bee Gees.  
Sherlock looks around in confusion, searching for the source of the music.   
Moriarty groans. “Do you mind if I get that?”  
“No, no, please. You’ve got the rest of your life.” Sherlock responses sarcastically.  
Moriarty takes his phone out and answers it. “Hello? ... Yes, of course it is. What do you want?”  
He mouths something like ‘Sorry.’ to them and Sherlock mouths an ‘Oh, fine.' back. Kate would laugh if she wasn't holding a loaded gun on a good amount of explosives.  
Moriarty rolls his eyes as he listens to the phone, turning his back towards them for a moment, then he spins around and screams. “SAY THAT AGAIN!”  
His voice echoes from the swimming pool walls.  
Kate frowns, Sherlock raises an eyebrow and John gives both of them a confused look, searching for answers.  
“Say that again, and know that if you’re lying to me, I will find you and I will skin you.” Moriarty explains to the person on the phone. “Wait.”  
He lowers the phone and takes a few steps towards them. “Sorry. Wrong day to die.” He says slowly, looking at the explosive and then at each of them.  
“Oh. Did you get a better offer?” Sherlock asks casually.  
Moriarty looks at his phone as he walks away. “You’ll be hearing from me, Sherlock.”  
As he walks away he lifts the phone to his ear again. “So if you have what you say you have, I will make you rich. If you don’t, I’ll make you into shoes.”  
When he walks out the door the snaps and the laser lights disappear. They all let out a deep breath and Kate turns around to check if she can see the snipers on the balcony above them. When she can’t see anyone she lowers her gun and turns back to the two men.  
“What happened there?” John breaths.  
“Someone changed his mind.” Sherlock states. “The question is: who?”  
“Well. I don’t care as long as we get to stay alive. Let’s get out of here boys.” Kate orders and heads towards the doors. “I really need my violin right now!”

Over the next few weeks, they all deal with what happened in their own way and slowly everything seems to be going back to ‘normal’.  
John’s jobless again, since his boss didn’t like that he was ‘sick’ that often right from the start, but he seems to be good about staying at home with Sherlock and solving cases.   
Kate’s at work most of the time so she doesn’t really see much that’s going on in 221B, occasionally she sees clients in their flat but that's it and even tho she offers her help and asks about their cases Sherlock seems to be pushing her away from the whole topic.

One day she enters the flat and a group of young man is gathered in front of John and Sherlock in the living room.  
“We have this website. It explains the true meaning of comic books, ’cause people miss a lot of the themes.”  
Kate smirks as she sneaks inside and can already see Sherlock walking away in boredom.   
“But then all the comic books started coming true.”  
Sherlock spots Kate who makes an impressed face on the statement one boy just made and lifts her eyebrows at Sherlock with a grin.  
“Oh. Interesting.” He smirks and walks back to them.

A day or two later Kate finds herself alone in the flat and since it’s her off day today she decides to use that option and sits down in Sherlock’s armchair with John’s laptop.  
"What are you doing with my laptop?" John questions as he sees it on Kates lap when he and Sherlock return from wherever.  
"Reading your Blog." she answers while getting up before Sherlock can start complaining and continues reading on the couch.  
"Oh come one, no one except you is reading that stupid blog." Sherlock groans.  
"You never tell me about your cases so how else should I find out what you’re doing all day?” Kate snaps. “…and besides it has many reads!"   
She turns the laptop to Sherlock so he can read the number of reads.  
"And that's just from today." John adds proudly.  
"‘Geek Interpreter.’ What’s that?” Sherlock asks in a kind of disgusted tone.  
“It’s the title.”  
“What does it need a title for?” He mocks and leaves for the kitchen.  
Kate just laughs and continues reading.  
"Wait. How do you even know my password?" John asks surprised.  
"Please,” Kate gives him a look. “It's obvious."  
"Is it?" John frowns.  
"Yes. It is." Sherlock returns and sits down in his armchair, hiding a smirk.

“I’ll go to the shop down the street to pick up some groceries. Any special wishes?” John announces at some point.  
Kate tells John a few sweets she would like him to bring and then she’s alone with Sherlock. A chance she’s waited for.  
"Well, any new cases?" Kates sighs and closes the laptop.  
Silence.  
“Come on Sherlock, I know you’re not in your damn mind palace. Stop ignoring me.” Kate groans in desperate and sits down in John’s armchair.  
“What do you want, Kate?”   
“I want to know why you keep pushing me away? Not just from the cases but also from you.”  
“Maybe I want you to stay out of it so you’re safe?”  
“Yeah right. Cause that makes sense.” Kate stand up and walks around. “I think you figured out by now that I’m perfectly capable of looking after myself. John knows. I see the questioning look that he gives me sometimes and that he knows that we have more in common than he first thought.”She stops and turns towards him. "Besides, John is your best friend. He's in more danger than me. I'm just your flatmate. Of cause I didn't ask to get dragged into all this but did I complain? No.”  
"You act like you being kidnapped and John wearing a jacket full of explosives never happened." He narrows his eyes. "Why?"  
"Maybe I just want to forget it? Get over it? Hell, you’re doing the same. We never talked about it again after it happened. Of cause we all know Moriarty will come back at us, we’re not THAT stupid. But neither John nor I am planning on leaving anytime soon so accept it.”  
As she talks Sherlock gets up and circles around her. He can deduct some things about her now. But only things he already knew anyway and only things from the time since she lives with them. Nothing from before. Just that her occupation before definitely wasn’t a pathologist.  
"You seemed way too harassed for that the other day. After the kidnapping." He whispers, stopping right beside her left ear."Well, maybe I faked it." She whispers back into his ear and their eyes meet.  
They just stare at each other for a moment, feeling each other’s breath on their face and Kate feels like she's about to be swallowed by Sherlock’s eyes.  
Those damn blue eyes.  
She takes a deep breath and takes a step back.

"Let's just say I had worse." She admits, shaking her head like she wants to get rid of a cloudy thought.  
"Oh, I figured." Sherlock chuckles, also taking a step back.  
"Then why do you ask? Why do you try to provoke me? I’ve told you I’m not one of your experiments, Sherlock! I’ve told you!"  
"I know."  
"Good."  
"Good."  
Kate sighs. He always needs to have the last word.  
“I want to be back in the game Sherlock! You know you need me and I know that you liked having me around. And If not then at least talk to me and don’t push me away.”Before anything else could happen, John walks back in and Kate helps him with the groceries.

During the morning a few clients visited but they were all too boring for Sherlock’s taste, who was currently sitting in his armchair tapping with his foot like his life depended on it.  
"Stop it." Kate groans, sick of the noise filling the room and disturbing her reading flow.  
Sherlock's head shoots up in confusion. "What?"  
"You're foot. It's annoying."  
Sherlock stops and groans while his head falls in his neck. "I'm soooo bored."  
"Yeah well, what do you expect when you turn every client down?" John mocks.  
"I don't care about these simple cases. I just wish Lestrade would call. His cases are at least decent for a few hours."  
"Sorry to disappoint you then but it's Greg's off day today." Kate answers.  
Sherlock groans again. "Why? What does he need an off day for?!"  
"Cause I'm going to the movies with him in an hour."  
"You what?" Sherlock asks surprised shifting back in his usual straight sitting position.  
"You have a date with Greg Lestrade? But he's married, Kate!" John gasps.  
"Jesus guys, not a date date. Just a date as friends. I really like him and hope to find a true friend in him instead of someone we see every day for a few minutes, besides Greg is as straight as a rainbow."  
"What?" Sherlock and John ask in union with furrowed eyebrows.  
"He's gay." Kate groans and rolls her eyes translating her previous sentence for them.  
"But he's married?!" John repeats what he said earlier.  
"To a woman!" Sherlock adds.  
"I guess he doesn't know about his luck yet and is in denial or some bullshit, but why do you think his marriage is on its way in the trash bin and his wife is cheating on him? Over and over? He's not a bad husband, he’s great. He’s obviously gay to the trained eye." Kate sighs ironically sadly and quotes Sherlock. “You have to observe, not only see.”  
"If you excuse me, boys. I'll just leave you to process this new information now and start to get ready." She announces while getting up from her chair to get to her room. 

Hanging out with Greg outside of work was as fun as Kate expected it. He’s probably one of the most caring and funniest guys she has ever met.  
They’re currently leaving the movie theatre, Kate’s arm hooked into Greg’s, laughing about some stupid joke.  
“You want to grab dinner or should I drive you home?” Greg offers her.  
As Kate thinks about it both of their phones make a sound and they just give each other a knowing look. They only know two persons that have both their numbers.  
Kate smirks and checks her phone. It is indeed John telling them to come to the pathology of the St Bartholomew’s Hospital.  
“Can they give us a break?” Greg half-jokes.  
“I’m quite happy they texted me, cause I’ve been nearly begging to be involved in the cases again.”  
Greg opens his car and holds the door open for Kate before getting into the driver seat. “Are you sure you wouldn’t make a better detective than a pathologist?”  
Kate just laughs at that and they drive to the hospital.

Sherlock wants Kate to take a look at the body of a blonde woman.  
“Oh so that’s about the case I offered you yesterday but you denied?” Lestrade mocks.  
“Turned out there wasn’t a better offer.” Sherlock simply states.  
Lestrade just stands back while John, Sherlock and Kate lean over the corpse.  
“Do people actually read your blog?” Sherlock suddenly asks, using his magnifier to take a closer look at the woman’s face. It seems like he’s picking up a conversation he had with John before Kate and Lestrade arrived.  
“Where do you think our clients come from?” John chuckles.  
“I have a website.”  
“In which you enumerate two hundred and forty different types of tobacco ash.” Kate deadpans.  
“Nobody’s reading your website.” John clears.  
Sherlock straightens up and glares at them.  
“Right then…dyed blonde hair; no obvious cause of death…” John leads the conversation back to the corpse.  
“Except for these speckles, whatever they are. I've never seen anything like this. Do you want me to cut her open?" Kate asks and looks up at Sherlock, but he's not there. He's heading for the door.  
“Come on!” He shouts.John and Kate quickly hurry after him while telling Lestrade goodbye.

“Where to now?” Kate asks Sherlock as they get in the cab.  
“I need to get in touch with some people. I think this has to do with some new kind of drug. The woman was an addict.” He looks over to John. “Can you go back to the flat and try to find anything on new drug business in London? Kate and I will try to look for some of my contacts from the homeless network.”  
John nods and soon Kate finds herself in one of the uglier places of London once again.  
They find a beggar within a few minutes and Sherlock gives him money and asks some questions before he returns to Kate who waited a few steps away.  
“And?” She asks.  
“He said that he heard something about a new drug cartel and that they’re supposed to have a laboratory down in the sewers.”  
Kate makes a disgusted face. “In the sewers?”  
“Yes. Some secret bunker maybe. He didn’t know for sure but better than nothing.” Sherlock says and wanders off.  
“But ‘drug cartel’ sounds a bit too big for us if you ask me.” Kate notices.  
“We just take a look and try to find out more about the heads behind all this.”  
“Ok. Do we know where to look? Or do we have to walk through all the sewers in London?”  
“No.” Sherlock hands her his phone. “John texted me that he found rumors online about a new drug. Most sightings were somewhere around Battersea Park.”  
Kate hands the phone back after reading John’s message.  
Sherlock stops a cab for them. “I’ll text him to meet us there.”

With the help of a metal pole Sherlock manages to remove the manhole cover of a sewer entrance in an empty alley.  
He kneels down and looks deep inside the hole before holding a hand out to Kate. “Come here.”  
She looks at his hand with hesitation. “Shouldn’t we wait for John?”  
“He will find us or can help us and if not he’s our outside man.”  
“Great.” Kate mutters sarcastically and walks over to Sherlock.  
“Sit down and give me your hands.” He orders and Kate does as she’s told and sits down with her feet dangling in the hole.  
“I’ll just lower you down a bit so you can see. Not completely. I won’t let go so I can drag you up again immediately.” Sherlock explains and then takes both her wrists into a strong grip.  
“Wait.” She removes her right hand off his grip again, gets a flashlight out of her pocket, turns it on and puts it in her mouth.  
“Ok, do you trust me?”  
She looks him in the eyes and nods.  
Slowly Sherlock lowers Kate into the sewer with a groan.  
“Do you see anything? Is it safe to walk there?” He manages to get out between his teeth as he struggles to hold Kate’s weight.  
She lets her head and with that the flashlight wanders around the dark tunnel.  
“Turn me around.” She mumbles through the flashlight and soon Sherlock moves her around so she can see the other side of the sewer.  
“It’s safe. Let me down a bit more.” He lowers her with another groan. “Ok let me go.”  
Kate falls the last few centimeters but can luckily stop herself from falling over.  
A rat runs away from her.  
“Charming.” Kate mumbles to herself and she steps aside and rubs her wrists with a hiss.  
That will definitely leave marks.  
Soon Sherlock’s legs come through the hole and Kate takes the flashlight out of her mouth, using her sleeve to remove drool from her face and the flashlight. Now Sherlock is hanging mid-air and Kate points the flashlight at the bottom under him, so he can see where he will fall.  
Sherlock lands with a splash of the water underneath them.  
“I hope the water doesn’t get deeper.” He clarifies, looking around with his own flashlight.  
“Why? Scared to get those pretty locks wet?” Kate mocks.  
He ignores her and takes off in a direction.

They wander around for a bit till Kate notices a tiny symbol on the wall she definitely saw before a few turns ago. “Sherlock.”  
He spins around and Kate points at the sign. “I saw that before. But I feel like this is upside down compared to the other one.”  
“It’s leading the way. It’s the gang symbol.” Sherlock explains and holds up a little bag with green powder, which he just picked up from the bottom. “The symbol is on it too.”  
“Yes! This triangle-ish thing was pointing downwards and this circle was more to the right. We turned right then.” Kate describes what she saw.  
“Now it points upwards and the circle is left. So we go left here.” He combines.  
They smile at each other and follow the symbol for a few more turns.  
“Lucky that you saw that! Otherwise we could’ve been running around here for god knows how long.”"Oh, now you admit that it was a stupid idea."  
“Well…”  
Suddenly there’s a sound of a heavy door opening nearby and they both freeze.  
They hear loud footsteps coming towards them.   
“Shit.” Kate whispers but before she can decide where to go Sherlock drags her away by her arm. The hurry around the last corner they passed and into the opposite direction of where they came from on the crossroad. They turn off their flashlights.  
But the other person must have also heard their footsteps, due to the water. “Who’s there? Rafael?!”  
The sound of unlocking a gun is heard and Kate reaches for her own but Sherlock's hand stops her and he shakes his head and puts his finger over his lips to signal her to be quiet.  
Soon the person appears in their view, but only looks into the tunnel they came from and that leads outside. As soon as he takes the next turn and they can’t see his flashlight anymore they slowly take the way he came from and reach a huge metal door.  
Kate gets out her gun and reaches for the door and to their surprise it’s open.  
Inside is nothing, only another door on the other side."There's a camera." Sherlock nods towards a GoPro on the ceiling.  
Suddenly a male voice rings through a speaker. "Who are you?"  
“We’re here to pick up the new delivery.” Sherlock answers.  
“Password?” The voice asks as the door closes behind them. Kate tries to open it again, but it’s locked.  
“Nobody told us a password. Just to come here and pick it up. You can call Rafael if you want. He’s our contact.” Sherlock explains calmly.  
There is silence for some time and Sherlock turns towards Kate and whispers. “I didn’t think he would really call him.” "Maybe Rafael is a 17-year-old delivery boy that isn’t really scary.” Kate whisper snaps back at him.

“Sorry guys. Seems like Rafael doesn’t know you.” The voice says casually.  
The sound of rushing water draws their attention to the left corner. Through a huge pipe water is flooding into the room and Kate grabs Sherlock’s underarm and looks at him in shock.  
After a few seconds the water reaches Sherlock’s hips already.  
“Do something!” Kate panics.  
“I’m trying to think of something!” Sherlock snaps back, both his hands pressing against his temple and eyes closed.

Kate has enough when the water nearly reaches her chin and removes her leather jacket and shoves the gun into Sherlock’s chest. “Hold that.”  
Before he can react she dives down and his eyes are searching for Kate in panic.  
The water is too dirty to see anything but after a few seconds Kate appears right in front of him. Already swimming to keep her head over water, since she’s a bit shorter than Sherlock.  
“This is disgusting!” She coughs in a disgusted voice, spitting some water out.  
“Where did you go?”  
“I put my jacket into the pipe. Hope that will buy us some time.” She explains while taking the gun back from Sherlock.  
“So we die even slower?”  
“No. So that John has enough time to find us!”  
Sherlock blinks at her a few times. “You’re brilliant!”  
“Thanks, I know.” She responses unimpressed. “Can you still stand?”  
“Yes. Why?”  
“Don’t freak out.” Kate warns before grabbing onto Sherlock’s shoulders and wrapping her legs around his hip. "But I intend to save my strength as long as I can."  
Sherlock just places one hand on her back to steady her and one on the wall to hold himself up before looking up to the ceiling in worry. “Are you sure John can find us?”  
“He’s not as stupid as you think, you know?” Kate wraps her arms around his neck as it gets hard to hold onto the wet coat on his shoulders.  
“Oh, I know. But we barely found this place.”"Can you be a little more positive? I don't want to die today!" she breathes out.  
“Ok listen, I have to get rid of the coat. It will be too heavy to swim with it.”  
“Ok.” Kate pushes herself of him and Sherlock removes his coat.  
The water nearly reaches his chin by now.  
Once he’s done he takes hold of Kate again who takes her previous position.  
“You okay?” Sherlock asks.  
“Yes.” She blows a strand of hair out of her face. “I could hold my breath for around 5 minutes last time I checked.”  
Sherlock just blinks at her, the water now nearly reaching his mouth.  
“You should start to swim, Sherlock.” Kate pushes herself away from him again, struggling to keep the gun over the water.After a few more minutes their heads are nearly reaching the ceiling.  
“The water got faster again. I check if I can block it more.” Kate says, gives Sherlock the gun again and is about to dive, when Sherlock stops her by grabbing her arm under water. “What?”  
“Just…be careful?” Sherlock frowns at his own statement.  
“I will.” Kate assures him with a smile before disappearing into the water.  
She’s gone for quite some time and returns when Sherlock’s locks already touch the ceiling.  
Gasping for breath she reaches for Sherlock’s shoulders. “I couldn’t find my jacket or your coat so I used my shirt now. I couldn’t get my trousers off cause they’re literally sticking to my body, with the water and all, so it won’t hold long.”  
“It’s ok.” Sherlock assures her while handing her the gun back.  
Then Kate recognizes the high of the water and that her head is nearly bumping against the ceiling and her breath quickens. “No, it’s not! I really don’t wanna die by drowning.”  
Sherlock grabs her head to focus her panicking eyes on him. “Kate, I need you to breathe. Breathe with me. In….and out….In….and out.”  
They stare at each other as her breath starts to slow again.  
“John’s gonna find us.” She whispers a few times to herself.

The water is cold so the air between them is cloudy and besides the moving water and their breathing, it's completely quiet.  
“Thank you.” She breaths and Sherlock just nods firmly.  
His breath warms her face and Kate just wants to dive into this warmth and she closes her eyes for a second.  
“I’m sorry.” Sherlock suddenly whispers.  
“What for?” Kate whispers back but then she sees it.  
Her shirt is floating next to them and suddenly the water level increases rapidly again.  
“Sherlock?” Kate whispers weakly through her chattering teeth.  
“Kate.”  
“I really don’t want to drown and we only have seconds left.” She removes the safety from the gun. “What about you?”  
“What difference would it make? We die anyway?” Sherlock says, his head in his neck now in order to breath.  
She points the gun at her head with her shaking hand.  
“Kate…”

Suddenly there’s a loud bang and the next second Kate feels a strong pull and she just holds onto everything she can.   
She comes to a sudden halt and opens her eyes and can see her hands gripping into Sherlock’s white flannel.  
“Kate! Sherlock!” She hears John call and turns her head.  
He’s standing right beside her with his gun in his hand.  
“Are you ok?” He asks and she nods apathetic, slowly sitting up.  
Then she turns to Sherlock in panic. Turns out she was lying half on top of him.  
“Sherlock!” She shouts and rolls off him.  
John turns him onto his side till he spits all the water out he swallowed while Kate throws up from disgust in general.  
Kate and John let’s out a deep breath and she sinks back against the nearest wall, closing her eyes for a second.  
“Kate?” She hears John calling her name. “Take this!”  
She opens her eyes and sees him offering her his jacket which reminds her that she’s not wearing a shirt. She takes it with a thankful smile and John helps her up.  
“What even happened?” He asks towards Sherlock who’s currently picking up his soaked coat.  
Sherlock explains him everything and Kate notices a corpse in the tunnel.  
“And what is your story?” She asks John.  
“I found that open manhole near our meeting point and walked around for a bit. Then I heard two men arguing. They were betting on if the man or the women will drown first. It was right before that door so I assumed you were inside there. I shot that guy and the other ran away. I opened the door and was nearly flood away with all the water. I hid beside the door and held onto it and then I saw you floating out.”  
“Guess we should make our way out then before he and his friends return.” Kate states and picks up her gun, which she dropped in the process.

Since no cab wants to drive them in their soaked state they have to walk the whole way back to 221B while the sun starts to rise.  
Sherlock eyes a surveillance camera. “I hope Mycroft won’t pay us a visit.”  
John and Kate follow his gaze.  
“Why should he?” She frowns, pulling John’s jacket closer around her.  
“He likes to stalk me with surveillance cameras and no offense, but you don't really look like you returned from a fun day at the waterpark."  
“None taken. But neither do you.” She mocks sarcastically.  
She suddenly turns towards John and hugs him. “Thank you, John!”  
“You wanted to be back in this game.” Sherlock reminds her.  
“I know.” She assures and they take the next turn.

Back at the flat when they’ve all taken a shower and chill in the living room.  
John’s writing his blog and Sherlock disappears in the kitchen for a moment.  
He returns with a sandwich and tries to get a look at what John is writing.  
“Oh, for God’s sakes!” He mumbles with a full mouth and looks over to Kate to tell her the title. “’The Speckled Blonde’.”  
She chuckles. “Don’t post that yet tho. The case isn’t closed.”  
Sherlock nods approvingly. “We don’t want the whole drug cartel to know where we live. They already know our faces. Don’t post it until we brought them down.”  
John sighs but nods.

The next days Kate stays at home, calling in “sick” after nearly drowning. When the doorbell rings she opens the door to two little girls."Hey, sweethearts. Are you sure you're right here? Do you want to see Mr. Holmes?"  
They nod and Kate takes them upstairs shrugging at John and Sherlock’s confused look at the kids.  
Once they took place on the client chair they look up to Sherlock who's pacing in front of the fireplace. "They wouldn’t let us see Granddad when he was dead. Is that cause he’d gone to heaven?”  
“People don’t really go to heaven when they die. They’re taken to a special room and burned.” Sherlock explains in his fast professional voice.  
“Sherlock!” John and Kate gasp as the two girls give each other a confused look.  
Kate gets up from the couch to support them and lead them out.

During lunchtime, Lestrade calls in and they take the case.  
They arrive at some sort of construction site near the airport and Lestrade explains the details as he leads them to the corpse. “There was a plane crash in Düsseldorf yesterday. Everyone dead.”  
“Suspected terrorist bomb. We do watch the news.”  
“You said ‘Boring’ and turned over.” John states.  
They reach a car. The boot is open and a corpse is laying inside.  
Lestrade shows them all the evidence he has till now while Sherlock starts to inspect the car. “Well, according to the flight details, this man was checked in on board. Inside his coat, he's got a stub from his boarding pass, napkins from the flight, even one of those special biscuits. Here's his passport stamped in Berlin Airport. So this man should have died in a plane crash in Germany yesterday but instead, he's in a car boot in Southwark.”  
“Lucky escape…” John jokes.  
“Any ideas?” Kate asks Sherlock who’s now looking at the body.  
“Eight, so far.” He stills. ”Okay, four ideas.”  
He turns around to take a look at the evidence while Kate leans over the body to have a look.  
“Maybe two ideas.” Sherlock frowns and looks up to the sky as a plane flies over them.

They gave up the case after they couldn’t figure out what step to take next. Back at the flat Sherlock concentrates on one of his experiments to get his mind of his failure.  
As he walks past John, who’s writing on his laptop again he stops. “No, no, no, don’t mention the unsolved ones!”  
“People want to know you’re human.”  
“Why?” Sherlock frowns and Kate laughs, setting her book down.  
“Cause they’re interested.” John explains.  
“No, they're not. Why are they?”  
“Look at that.” John smiles and points at the hit counter. “One thousand eight hundred and ninety-five.”  
“Sorry, what?”  
“I reset that counter this morning. This blog has had nearly two thousand hits in the last eight hours. This is your living, Sherlock. Not two hundred and forty different types of tobacco ash.”  
“Two hundred and forty-three.” Sherlock grumbles as he walks away.  
John looks up to Kate and they smirk at each other.

The next day John is on a date and Kate approaches Sherlock, who’s on one of his experiments again.  
“We should go shopping!”"What?" Sherlock's head shoots up to look at her. "Our cloth were ruined in that sewer. I need a new jacket and I don't think washing your coat will save much. I'm glad that our phones were water prove.”  
Sherlock just huffs and turns back to his experiment.   
“Oh come on Sherlock, I just want to get what we need I don’t want to go shopping all day. You know I’m not that kind of women.” Kate wines. “What is Sherlock Holmes without his coat?”  
He sighs and puts his safety glasses down. “Ok. Just the coat.”  
“Nice! I get my bag.” Kate grins.

In the city they find a store with good quality coats.  
“Sherlock! This one looks exactly like yours. Try it.” Kate exclaims as she finds it.  
He throws it on and even if he tries to hide it his eyes shine as he looks at himself in the mirror and Kate smiles proudly. “I thought we had to go to a tailor and have one made with your size and all, but here we go!”  
Sherlock turns around and then shows her a light brown coat. “How about this for you?”  
Kate gasps and reaches for the clothing. The coat is beautiful.  
She never thought about buying a coat and was just planning to get a normal jacket again but when she throws it over and stands beside Sherlock to look at herself in the mirror she can’t stop grinning.  
(It’s the same coat I used in the moodboard I did for Kate: https://fanfictiontrashwhore.tumblr.com/post/184476482216/moodboard-for-my-sherlock-oc-kate-taylor-read-my)  
“It suits you. You look more like you now? If that makes sense? Since it’s only a piece of clothing…?”  
“Thank you.” Kate stops him and gives him a smile in the mirror. “I get it.”  
Sherlock doesn’t know if she refers to the ‘complement’ or the coat itself and Kate loves it.  
“A shame that John can’t wear a coat with his short legs. It would look ridiculous. But we would be a real gang.” Kate sighs as they leave the store with their bags and earns one of Sherlock’s rare laughs. 

On the way home, they get a call from Lestrade again. This time he wants them at a Theatre.  
They meet John there. The case is an easy one and Sherlock solves it right there.  
As they make their way out again Sherlock turns to John.  
“So, what’s this one?”  
“’Belly Button Murders’?” Kate offers and Sherlock huffs.  
“’The Navel Treatment’?” John says.  
“Eurgh!” Sherlock exclaims and Kate laughs.  
“There’s a lot of press outside, guys.” Lestrade informs them.  
“Well, they won’t be interested in us.”  
“Yeah, that was before you were an internet phenomenon. A couple of them specifically wanted photographs of you.”  
“For God’s sake!” Sherlock glares at John who smirks.  
Kate grabs Sherlock’s arm to get his attention and gives him a panicked look. “I can’t have pictures of me in the newspaper!”  
Before John or Lestrade can ask Sherlock nods and disappears in a room.  
He returns with three heats and hands each of them one. “Cover your face and walk fast.”  
“Still, it’s good for the public image, a big case like this.” Lestrade points out.  
“I’m a private detective. The last thing I need is a public image.” Sherlock snaps.  
The three of them put on the heads and Lestrade opens the door.  
Kate hides behind her coat collar and Sherlock, when she suddenly feels Sherlock’s hand grabbing onto hers.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Feedback?


	11. A Scandal In Belgravia 1

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> This chapter refers to the Events in S0E01 so I took Story and dialogue from the Episode and placed Kate in it.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NusxTNSPEdc

It's Friday. Sherlock finally decided that he needed a nap, John is on another date and Kate is currently in the living room looking at newspaper articles about Sherlock.  
Gladly nobody published a picture of her. Mostly of Sherlock and sometimes a small one of John since he owns the blog. She was only mentioned once as Sherlock's mysterious companion.  
Mrs. Hudson is walking through the flat, trying to clean up a bit since all three flatmates are too distracted most of the time.  
"Oh dear! Thumbs!" She hears her call from the kitchen.  
Kate chuckles and gets up to help her when the door opens and a man storms in.  
"The door was... the door was..."  
He just stares at them in panic before fainting.  
"Sherlock! You've got another one!" Mrs. Hudson shouts while Kate bends down to check his pulse.  
Sherlock hurries out of his bedroom, only wrapped in his blanket.  
"Do you sleep naked?" Kate frowns but Sherlock ignores her.

"Tell us from the start. Don't be boring." Sherlock demands as soon as the man is conscious again.  
He explains that his car broke down in the countryside. He was trying to start the engine again and again but it wouldn't work.  
As he looked around for some sort of help he saw a man with a red jacket right at the river. He tried to start the engine again but then the car loudly backfired. As he looked for the man again he was gone so he got out of the car and saw him lying on the ground. He got closer to see if he's ok, but the man was dead.  
"Kate?"  
"Mh?"  
"I'll send you to the crime scene. You can video call me then."  
"What?"  
"I just woke up and I'm not sure if it's exciting enough to get out of the house. I call Lestrade."

Soon Later Kate finds herself arriving at the crime scene in the countryside.  
As soon as she gets out of the car a detective glowers at her. "Carter. Sherlock Holmes?"  
"No, Kate Taylor." She shakes his hand. "Are you set up for Wi-Fi?"  
He nods and Kate opens her notebook to call Sherlock.  
"Wait. I have to get my coffee." Sherlock picks up and walks away.  
"You realize this is a tiny bit humiliating?" Kate utters as he comes back.  
"It's okay, I'm fine." Sherlock yawns and pulls his blanket closer around him. "Now, show me to the stream."  
"I didn't really mean for you." Kate grumbles and Sherlock walks into the living room, places the Laptop on the table and adjusts it.  
"Look, this is a six. There's no point in my leaving the flat for anything less than a seven. We agreed. Now, go back. Show me the grass."  
"When did we agree that?" Kate queries while walking towards the river and turning the notebook around to show Sherlock.  
"We agreed it yesterday. Stop! ...Closer."  
Kate flips the notebook around and gives him a glare. "I wasn't even at home yesterday. I was in Dublin with John? Our off day that you didn't want to be part of, remember?"  
"Well, it's hardly my fault you weren't listening." He mocks.  
Kate can hear the doorbell ring and Sherlock shouts. "SHUT UP!"  
"Do you just carry on talking when we're away?" Kate chuckles.  
"I don't know. How often are you away? ... Now, show me the car that backfired.  
Kate groans and stands up to turn the laptop towards the car. "It's there."  
"That's the one that made the noise, yes?"  
She turns the camera back at herself. "Yeah. And if you're thinking gunshot, there wasn't one. He wasn't shot; he was killed by a single blow to the back of the head from a blunt instrument which then magically disappeared along with the killer. That's gotta be an eight at least."  
"You've got two more minutes, then I want to know more about the driver." Carter warns.  
"Oh, forget him. He's an idiot. Why else would he think himself a suspect?" Sherlock groans.  
"I think he's a suspect!" Carter finally gives his input, leaning towards the camera.  
"Pass me over." Sherlock sighs at Kate.  
"All right, but there's a mute button and I will use it." She warns.  
"Up a bit! I'm not talking from down here!" Sherlock snaps as Kate holds the notebook in a lower angle due to the weight.  
"Okay, just take it, take it." She grumbles and hands the notebook over to Carter.  
"Having driven to an isolated location and successfully committed a crime without a single witness, why would he then call the police and consult a detective? Fair play?" Sherlock starts to talk in his quick deduction voice.  
"He's trying to be clever. It's over-confidence." Carter explains.  
"Did you see him? Morbidly obese, the undisguised halitosis of a single man living on his own, the right sleeve of an internet porn addict and the breathing pattern of an untreated heart condition. Low self-esteem, tiny IQ and a limited life expectancy" Sherlock starts to chuckle. "And you think he's an audacious criminal mastermind?!"  
Kate gapes and Sherlock turns around revealing the driver.  
"Don't worry, this is just stupid." He assures him.  
"What did you say? Heart what?" The driver questions in concern.  
"Go to the stream." Sherlock orders.  
"What's in the stream?" Carter asks.  
"Go and see."  
Carter hands the notebook back to Kate. She can hear Mrs. Hudson and some other people talking.  
"Sherlock, what's going on? What's happening?" Then the screen goes black. "I've lost him. I don't know what ..."  
A young police officer runs up to her. "Miss Taylor?"  
"Yes?" She's still trying to get the call back up.  
"It's for you."  
She looks at him and sees a phone on his ear and holds out her hand. "Okay, thanks."  
"Uh, no, miss. The helicopter."  
She spins around and gazes at a helicopter that is just landing on the field. "What?"

Kate can't really do anything else than get into the helicopter since two suited men insist on it. They won't tell her where they want to take her and who they work for but Kate's money in on Mycroft.  
After some time of flying the helicopter starts to sink over Buckingham Palace and Kate frowns.  
The helicopter lands on the grass and Kate is led inside the Palace. On the way to wherever she is taken she meets John, who's also lead by another man.  
"John!"  
"Kate. What's going on?"  
"I don't know. I was picked up from a crime scene with a freaking helicopter!" She whispers shouts at him and looks around.

As they reach a huge room the men tell them to wait there.  
Sherlock's already sitting on a couch, still wrapped in his blanket and with a pile of clothes on the table before him  
He looks over to them as they enter and John raises his arms in a ‘wtf is this?' position and Sherlock shrugs.  
Kate sits down beside Sherlock and John takes place next to her other side.  
She tries to distract herself and look around but her eyes end up on Sherlock nonetheless.  
As she tries to hold back a chuckle John leans a bit over to take a look at Sherlock's blanket. "Are you wearing any pants?"  
"No." He casually answers.  
"Okay." John leans back and it's quiet for a moment.  
Then Sherlock slowly turns his head towards them and they all exchange looks before bursting out in a laugh.  
"At Buckingham Palace, fine." John tries to stop laughing. "Oh, I'm seriously fighting an impulse to steal an ashtray."  
They giggle again.  
Kate takes a deep breath and uses a part of Sherlock's blanket to wipe her tears away. "What are we doing here, Sherlock? Seriously, what?"  
"I don't know." He grins at her.  
"Here to see the Queen?" John offers, still chuckling.  
In that moment a person enters the room and they all turn their heads.  
"Oh, apparently yes." Sherlock deadpans at the appearance of Mycroft and they all start to intensively laugh again.  
Kate is laughing so hard she has to hold on to John's arm in order to not fall off the couch.  
"Just once, can you three behave like grown-ups?" Mycroft growls with a misbehaving look at them.  
"We solve crimes, I blog about it, he forgets his pants and she fails at looking after us, so I wouldn't hold out too much hope." John jokes.  
Sherlock looks up at Mycroft with a serious face. "I was in the middle of a case, Mycroft."  
"What, the hiker and the backfire? I glanced at the police report. Bit obvious, surely?"  
"Transparent." He assures and Kate frowns, mouthing a ‘What??'  
"Time to move on then." Mycroft verbalizes and picks up the pile of cloth and holds it into Sherlock's direction.  
He only stares at him and Mycroft exhales deeply. "We are in Buckingham Palace, the very heart of the British nation. Sherlock Holmes, put your trousers on!"  
"What for?" Sherlock shrugs and looks away.  
"Your client." Mycroft replies sternly.  
"And my client is?" He demands as he gets up.  
"Illustrious ..." A man walks through the door and catches their attention. "…in the extreme."  
John stands up too and Kate follows his example with hesitation.  
"And remaining I have to inform you…entirely anonymous." The man declares before looking over at Mycroft.  
"Mycroft!" He exclaims happily.  
"Harry." Mycroft greets back and shakes his hand with one of his best fake grins. "May I just apologize for the state of my little brother?"  
"Full-time occupation, I imagine." Harry jokes, looking at Sherlock.  
Sherlock looks away from them with ignorance.  
"Doctor John Watson, formerly of the Fifth Northumberland Fusiliers." Harry speaks as he steps up towards John.  
"Hello, yes." John shakes Harry's hand a bit straddled by the fact that he knows so much about him.  
"My employer is a tremendous fan of your blog."  
"Your employer?" John gasps.  
"Particularly enjoyed the one about the aluminum crutch."  
"Thank you!" John clears his through and turns around to give Sherlock a smug look.  
"And this must be Kate Taylor!" Harry turns towards her and she gives him an unsure smile while Sherlock's head spins back to Harry in confusion. "It's an honor to meet you."  
"Thanks." Kate shakes his hand.  
Finally Harry steps up to Sherlock. "And Mr. Holmes, the younger. You look taller in your photographs."  
"I take the precaution of a good coat and a short friend." Sherlock states emotionless before he starts to walk past Kate and John, towards the door.  
"Mycroft, I don't do anonymous clients." Sherlock says as he passes him. "I'm used to mystery at one end of my cases. Both ends is too much work."  
He turns around to Harry. "Good morning."  
Sherlock's heading for the door when Mycroft manages to step onto a part of his blanket. The blanket slips off him and Kate gasps as Sherlock tries to hold it up and cover the important parts.  
"This is a matter of national importance. Grow up." Mycroft growls.  
"Get off my sheet!" Sherlock spits through gritted teeth and pulls on the blanket.  
"Or what?" Mycroft challenges.  
"Or I'll just walk away."  
"I'll let you." He smirks.  
"Boys, please!" Kate slightly slaps Mycroft's arm and uses her best British accent to tattle them. "Not here."  
Sherlock's practically cooking. "Who. Is. My. Client?"  
Mycroft takes a deep breath. "Take a look at where you're standing and make a deduction. You are to be engaged by the highest in the land."  
"Now for God's sake ..." Mycroft shouts before giving Harry an apologizing look and continues a bit quieter "... put your clothes on!"  
Sherlock takes a sharp breath before turning around. "I would like to change in private."

After Sherlock got dressed they find themselves on the couch again with Mycroft and Harry on the opposite couch.  
"I'll be mother." Mycroft informs Harry while he's pouring tea.  
"And there is a whole childhood in a nutshell." Sherlock sighs in boredom.  
Mycroft gives him an angry stare while Kate and John have a hard time to hold back another wave of laugh.  
"My employer has a problem." Harry pronounces and brings the conversation back to the case.  
"A matter has come to light of an extremely delicate and potentially criminal nature, and in this hour of need, dear brother, your name has arisen." Mycroft continues.  
"Why? You have a police force of sorts, even a marginally Secret Service. Why come to me?" Sherlock questions.  
"People do come to you for help, don't they, Mr. Holmes?" Harry phrases.  
"Not, to date, anyone with a Navy." Sherlock shots back and John bites back a smile.  
Mycroft inhales. "This is a matter of the highest security, and therefore of trust."  
"You don't trust your own Secret Service?" John asks.  
"Naturally not." Mycroft looks at him. "They all spy on people for money."  
"I do think we have a timetable." Harry reminds Mycroft.  
"Yes, of course." He picks up a small suitcase and hands Sherlock some photographs. "What do you know about this woman?"  
"Nothing whatsoever." Sherlock utters with a bored tone, looking at the pictures.  
"Then you should be paying more attention. She's been at the center of two political scandals in the last year, and recently ended the marriage of a prominent novelist by having an affair with both participants separately."  
"You know I don't concern myself with trivia. Who is she?"  
"Irene Adler, professionally known as ‘The Woman'."  
"Professionally?" John frowns.  
"There are many names for what she does. She prefers ‘dominatrix.'" Mycroft states and Kate makes an impressed face, nearly ripping the pictures out of Sherlock's hands to look at them.  
"Dominatrix." Sherlock states thoughtfully while John and Kate look at the pictures.  
"Don't be alarmed. It has to do with sex." Mycroft explains with a smug look.  
"Sex doesn't alarm me." Sherlock shots back at Mycroft and him, Kate and John look up at Mycroft at the same time.  
"How would you know?" He smiles arrogantly.  
Sherlock just stares at him and Kate starts to chew on her lip to distract herself from the awkwardness filling the room.  
"She provides…shall we say…recreational scolding for those who enjoy that sort of thing and are prepared to pay for it." He explains and hands Sherlock more pictures. "These are all from her website."  
Sherlock flips through the sexy pictures while Kate and John just gape at them.  
"And I assume this Adler woman has some compromising photographs." Sherlock guesses as he hands the pictures over to Kate and John.  
"You're very quick, Mr. Holmes." Harry speaks up again.  
"Hardly a difficult deduction. Photographs of whom?" Sherlock stares at him.  
"A person of significance to my employer. We'd prefer not to say any more at this time."  
Sherlock gives him an angry glare and Kate puts the pictures back on the table. "You can't tell us anything?"  
"I can tell you it's a young person." Mycroft discloses slowly and John and Kate simultaneously sip on their tea. "A young female person."  
John's eyes widen, Kate covers her mouth with her hand to stop herself from spitting out tea and Sherlock just smirks.  
"How many photographs?" Sherlock enquires.  
Mycroft closes his eyes for a moment. "A considerable number, apparently."  
"Do Miss Adler and this young female person appear in these photographs together?"  
"Yes, they do."  
"And I assume in a number of compromising scenarios."  
"An imaginative range, we are assured."  
Kate and John are just staring at Mycroft dumbfounded.  
"Kate. John. You might want to put that cup back in your saucer now."  
They snap out of it and place their cups on the table.  
"Aren't they cute? Your little pets?" Mycroft grins at Sherlock.  
Kate narrows her eyes at him with an angry stare and he quickly turns towards Harry.  
"Can you help us, Mr. Holmes?" Harry picks up the conversation again.  
"How?"  
"Will you take the case?"  
"What case? Pay her, now and in full. As Miss Adler remarks in her masthead, ‘Know when you are beaten'."  
"She doesn't want anything." Mycroft sighs as Sherlock reaches for his coat. "She got in touch, she informed us that the photographs existed, she indicated that she had no intention to use them to extort either money or favor."  
"Oh, a power play." He smirks and turns to Mycroft in interest. "A power play with the most powerful family in Britain. Now that is a dominatrix. Oh, this is getting rather fun, isn't it?"  
"Sherlock..." John warns him.  
"Where is she?" Sherlock requests as he gets up and grabs his coat.  
"In London currently. She's staying..."  
"Text me the details." Sherlock cuts him off and heads towards the door. "I'll be in touch by the end of the day."  
Kate and John quickly get up as well to follow him.  
"Do you really think you'll have news by then?" Harry asks, also standing up with Mycroft.  
Sherlock turns back to him with a grin. "No, I think I'll have the photographs."  
"One can only hope you're as good as you seem to think."  
Sherlock gives Harry and intense look and roams his eyes over him. Kate sees Mycroft getting uncomfortable and exchanges a smirk with John. They all know exactly what he's doing.  
"I'll need some equipment, of course." Sherlock tells Mycroft.  
"Anything you require. I'll have it sent to..."  
But Sherlock interrupts him and turns to Harry. "Can I have a box of matches?"  
"I'm sorry?"  
"Or your cigarette lighter. Either will do." Sherlock states and holds out his hand.  
"I don't smoke."  
"No, I know you don't, but your employer does."  
Silence.

"We have kept a lot of people successfully in the dark about this little fact, Mr. Holmes." Harry breaths.  
Kate gives John a clap on the arm while her mouth hangs open and John gawks in surprise.  
"I'm not the Commonwealth." Sherlock assures and takes the lighter Harry is offering him.  
"And that's as modest as he gets. Pleasure to meet you." John tells Harry while following Sherlock out.  
Kate gives him a nod before following the two men.  
"Laters!" Sherlock shouts over his shoulder and they break out in a giggle again.

A guard leads them outside and they jump into the next cab.  
Kate is placed in the middle, with Sherlock to her right and John to her left.  
"Okay, the smoking. How did you know?" John asks towards Sherlock.  
"The evidence was right under your nose, John. As ever, you see but do not observe."  
Kate rolls her eyes at the last part.  
"Observe what?"  
Sherlock reaches into his coat and reveals an ashtray from the palace. "The ashtray."  
Kate and John stare at him for a moment before they all start to laugh deeply.

Despite to John and Kate's expectations they drive back to 221B, because Sherlock says he needs to do something else first.  
So while they wait Kate is making herself a sandwich and John's on his laptop. They hear Sherlock rummaging in his room and as Kate steps in the corridor, she can see him throwing clothes around through the open door.  
"What are you doing?" John finally asks, leaning back so he can see Sherlock's door.  
"Going into battle, John. I need the right armor."  
Kate huffs and returns to the kitchen. 

They find themselves in a cab again at some point.  
Kate takes a look at Sherlock who's wearing his usual cloth.  
"So, what's the plan?" John questions.  
"We know her address." Sherlock informs.  
"What, just ring her doorbell?"  
"Exactly." He says before leaning forward to the driver. "Just here, please."  
"You didn't even change your clothes?" Kate glares at him.  
"Then it's time to add a splash of color."

They get out of the cab and Sherlock leads the way.  
"Are we here?" John enquires, looking around as Sherlock stops and turns around.  
"Two streets away, but this will do."  
"For what?" John furrows his eyebrows.  
Sherlock gestures towards his left cheek. "Punch me in the face."  
"Punch you?" John hesitates.  
"Yes. Punch me, in the face." Sherlock declares in annoyance and gestures to his cheek again. "Didn't you hear me?"  
"I always hear ‘punch me in the face' when you're speaking, but it's usually subtext." John half-jokes and Kate groans, ready to take action into her hands.  
"Oh, for God's sakes." Sherlock grunts and turns towards Kate. "Kate, please?"  
"Ok, but punch me first. I'll get triggered and punch harder. We'll need that if you want it to leave a wound. I'm not in shape at the moment to hit that hart without a trigger." Kate explains and John is confused.  
Sherlock hesitates but when Kate gives him an approving nod he punches her as hard as he can allow himself.  
She stumbles back with a moan and Sherlock just stares at her in anticipation.  
Suddenly she looks up with a hatred glare and storms at him with a growl, punching him hard in the face.  
He whimpers and holds his cheek. "Thank you. That was, that was..."  
But John's suddenly on him pushing him to the ground.  
"Okay! I think we're done now, John." Sherlock gets out while John is chocking him.  
"You wanna remember, Sherlock: I was a soldier. I killed people." He roars.  
"You were a doctor!"  
"I had bad days!" He shouts back.  
"John, it's enough!" She drags him off Sherlock.  
"Sorry. It just triggered me."  
Sherlock gently places a hand under Kate's chin to take a look at where he punched her. "Are you alright?"  
"Yes. Don't worry." She reaches for his wrist and gives him an innocent smile.  
Sherlock turns around to John who looks at them with narrowed eyes.  
"This is good for the cover. Kate and I were robbed and you saw it and happen to be a doctor." Sherlock explains.  
John nods and they make their way towards the address.

Once they arrive at the house they ring the doorbell.  
"Hello?" A female voice sounds through the speaker.  
Sherlock looks up at the camera with big eyes. "Ooh! Um, sorry to disturb you."  
His breath is shaking and he even fakes some tears. "Ehm, my wife and I have just been attacked ehm and ehm I think they ... they took my wallet and ehm and our phones. Ehm, please could you help us?"  
He reaches for Kate's hand and drags her into the camera. She also fakes to cry and leans into Sherlock's side.  
"I can phone the police if you want." The voice offers.  
"Thank you, thank you!" Sherlock cries. "Could you, please?"  
"Oh, would you ... would you mind if we just waited here, just until they come?" Kate gets out under tears and the door buzzes.  
"Thank you. Thank you so much." Sherlock whines as the opens the door and the woman that talked to them. It isn't Irene Adler.  
John steps in behind them. "I saw it all happen. It's okay, I'm a doctor."  
"Now, have you got a first aid kit?" John asks her.  
"In the kitchen." She points towards a door and gestures for Sherlock and Kate to follow her. "Please."  
"Oh! Thank you!" Sherlock exclaims and drags Kate with him.

Sherlock and Kate are led in a huge, bright and elegant room. They sit down on a couch and wait for John when a woman starts talking.  
"Hello. Sorry to hear that you've been hurt. I don't think Karen caught your name." The woman exclaims coming closer.  
Sherlock gets back to acting again and speaks in a hurting voice. "I'm so sorry. I'm ..."  
He stops and stares towards the door. Quickly Kate follows his gaze and is met by a completely naked women. Irene Adler.  
Irene gives Kate a quick overlook before looking back at Sherlock. "Oh, it's always hard to remember an alias when you've had a fright, isn't it? "  
Kate's mouth hangs open and Sherlock just stares at her in disbelieve.  
She makes her way over to Sherlock and kneels on the couch, one leg on either side of him so she nearly straddles him. "Mr. Sherlock Holmes."  
She places a Hand on Sherlock's chest and looks over to Kate with a smug face "Mrs. Holmes?"  
"No, I'm not really his wife! We're not…" Kate clarifies.  
"There now, we're both bared…! Those paparazzi pictures of you two had me worrying." She smirks back at Sherlock.  
"Miss Adler, I presume." Sherlock says casually.  
"Look at those cheekbones. I could cut myself slapping that face." She ignores him "Would you like me to try? I see you're into playing rough."  
Irene nods at Kate's wrists which are still sore from when Sherlock lifted her down in the sewers but before anyone can response John walks into the room with a bowl of water and a napkin.  
"Right, this should do it." He looks up and sees the scene in front of him. His mouth opens and closes a few times before he looks back down at his bowl. "I've missed something, haven't I?"  
Sherlock kind of nods and Irene takes a step back.  
"Please, sit down." She offers John with a gesture towards the empty seat next to Kate. "Oh, if you'd like some tea I can call the maid."  
Sherlock exhales and shifts around on the couch. Clearly uncomfortable with what just happened. "I had some at the Palace."  
"I know." Irene replies and sits down in an armchair. She crosses her legs and covers her breasts with her arms.  
"Clearly." Sherlock tries to sound professional but still furrows his eyebrows.  
They sit in awkward silence for a moment while Irene and Sherlock stare at each other.  
Kate clears her throat. "I had a tea too at the Palace, if anyone's interested. "  
John nods approvingly still standing in the doorway with the bowl in one hand and Sherlock just keeps staring at Irene. This time with his deducting stare.  
After a few seconds he turns to John and stares at him and John returns that stare with a frown.  
He looks back at Irene again and makes a confused face.  
"Do you know the big problem with a disguise, Mr. Holmes?" Irene asks and Sherlock raises an eyebrow. "However hard you try, it's always a self-portrait."  
"You think I'm a married man that just got robbed?"  
"No, I think you're more common than you let on. Damaged, delusional and you believe in a higher power. In your case, it's yourself. "  
Sherlock gives her an angry look before opening the first few buttons of his flannel to give himself a little bit more freedom.  
"Oh, and somebody loves you, vice versa." Irene leans forward and looks at Kate. "Why? If I had to punch those faces, I'd avoid your nose and teeth too. "  
Kate's face goes pale from shock before turning red.  
She forces a laugh. "Could you put something on, please? Anything at all?"  
"A napkin?" John offers helplessly.  
"Why? Are you feeling exposed?" She mocks back at them.  
Sherlock gets up with a sigh. "I don't think Kate knows where to look."  
He offers his coat to Irene, but she just gets up and walks past him to tower over Kate. "No, I think he knows exactly where."  
"Nothing I can't see every day." Kate huffs.  
She also turns to John right beside her who swallows hard and tries his best to look her in the eyes. "Him too."  
Then she turns towards Sherlock, who looks away, to take the coat from him. "I'm not sure about you."  
"If I wanted to look at naked women I'd borrow John's laptop." Sherlock states and walks to the other side of the room and stops beside the fireplace.  
"You do borrow my laptop." John throws in.  
"I confiscate it."

Irene wraps the coat around her and sits down beside Kate on the couch. "Well, never mind. We've got better things to talk about. Now tell me…I need to know. How was it done?"  
"What?" Sherlock questions in confusion while Irene gets rid of her shoes.  
"The hiker with the bashed-in head. How was he killed?"  
The three friends frown at each other.  
"That's not why I'm here?" Sherlock actually sounds confused.  
"No no no, you're here for the photographs but that's never gonna happen and since we're here just chatting anyway..."  
"That story's not been on the news yet. How do you know about it?" Kate snaps and turns towards her.  
"I know one of the policemen. Well, I know what he likes." She gives her a smug grin.  
"Oh." Kate and John express in union.  
"And you like policemen?" John asks, finally sitting down on the couch. Kate rolls her eyes at his sudden eagerness.  
"I like detective stories AND detectives. Brainy's the new sexy." She smirks and Kate nods in agreement way to fast and stops herself in the process and gives Irene another angry scare instead.  
"Positionofthecar..." Sherlock mumbles too quickly and shakes his head to clear his thoughts.  
Kate, John and Irene's heads snap towards him.  
"Position of the car relative to the hiker at the time of the backfire. That and the fact that the death blow was to the back of the head. That's all you need to know."  
"Okay, tell me: How was he murdered?" Irene requests and looks at him in excitement.  
"He wasn't."  
"You don't think it was murder?"  
"I know it wasn't."  
"How?"  
"The same way that I know the victim was an excellent sportsman recently returned from foreign travel and that the photographs I'm looking for are in this room." Sherlock starts to pace in front of the fireplace, just like back at 221B.  
"Okay, but how? "  
"So they are in this room?"  
"Thank you." His head shoots towards John. "John, man the door. Let no one in."  
John leaves and Kate shifts a bit away from Irene.  
"Two men alone in the countryside several yards apart, and one car." Sherlock continues.  
"Oh. I…I thought you were looking for the photos now."  
"No no, looking takes ages. I'm just going to find them but you're moderately clever and we've got a moment, so let's pass the time." He turns towards her. "Two men, a car and nobody else. The driver's trying to fix his engine. Getting nowhere. And the hiker's taking a moment, looking at the sky. Watching the birds? Any moment now, something's gonna happen. What?"  
"The hiker's going to die."  
"No, that's the result. What's going to happen?"  
"I don't understand."  
Kate opens her mouth to say something but Sherlock holds his hand up to stop her and continues without even looking at her. "Oh well, try to."  
"Why?"  
"Because you cater to the whims of the pathetic and take your clothes off to make an impression. Stop boring me and think. It's the new sexy." He answers in a sarcastic tone.  
"The car's going to backfire."  
"There's going to be a loud noise."  
"So, what?"  
"Oh, noises are important. Noises can tell you everything. For instance..." His monologue is interrupted by the fire alarm.  
They look at the door, but then Irene glances at the mirror above the fireplace for a second.  
"Thank you. On hearing a smoke alarm, a mother would look towards her child. Amazing how fire exposes our priorities." Sherlock explains and finds a button that moves the mirror up and reveals a safe.  
"Really hope you don't have a baby in here." He turns back to Irene who's standing now.  
"All right, John. You can turn it off now." Sherlock shouts.  
"I said you can turn it off now." He shouts a bit louder after the alarm is continuing.  
"Give me a minute." They hear John grumble on the other side of the door.  
There's the muffled sound of a gunshot, but Sherlock seems to overhear it while talking on and staring on the number pad of the safe. "Hm...Should always use gloves with these things, you know. Heaviest oil deposit's always on the first key used."  
"Sherlock." Kate tries to get his attention.  
"That's quite clearly the three, but after that the sequence is almost impossible to read. I'd say from the make that it's a six digit code. Can't be your birthday, no disrespect but clearly you were born in the eighties…"  
"Sherlock!"  
"The eight's barely used, so..."  
"I'd tell you the code right now but you know what? I already have." Irene smirks and Sherlock frowns. "Think."  
"Sherlock!" Kate shouts now, getting up from the couch and ends up with a high pitched scream cause the door burst open and a group of men with pistols storm in,  
"Hands behind your head. On the floor. Keep it still." One of the man orders and walks right in front of Sherlock.  
"Sorry, Sherlock." John whispers as he's led in, hands behind his head and a gun pointed at him.  
He sinks to his knees and Kate does the same as a man steps up behind her with a gun. With a growl she lifts her hands behind her head.  
"Miss Adler, on the floor!" He orders and she pushed on her knees besides Kate.  
"Don't you want me on the floor too?" Sherlock questions, also with his hands behind his head.  
"No, sir, I want you to open the safe."  
"American. Interesting." Sherlock states and looks over to Irene. "Why would you care?"  
"Sir, the safe. Now, please."  
"I don't know the code." Sherlock admits.  
"We've been listening. She said she told you."  
"Well, if you'd been listening, you'd know she didn't."  
"I'm assuming I missed something. From your reputation, I'm assuming you didn't, Mr. Holmes."  
"For God's sake. She's the one who knows the code. Ask her." John snaps.  
"Yes, sir. She also knows the code that automatically calls the police and sets off the burglar alarm. I've learned not to trust this woman."  
"Mr. Holmes doesn't ..." Irene tries but is interrupted.  
"Shut up." The American spits out. "One more word out of you, just one and I will decorate that wall with the insides of your head. That, for me, will not be a hardship."  
He sighs. "Mr. Archer? At the count of three, shoot Miss Taylor."  
"What?" Kate snaps and feels a gun pressing against her neck.  
"I don't have the code." Sherlock breaths with a slightly panicked undertone.  
"One."  
"I don't know the code."  
"Sherlock!" Kate stares up at him in panic but is pushed down more by the gun in her neck.  
"Two."  
Sherlock tears his gaze from Kate and looks back at the American. "She didn't tell me." He's nearly screaming now. "I don't know it!"  
"I'm prepared to believe you any second now."  
Sherlock looks over to Irene.  
"Three."  
"No, stop!"  
The man holds up his free hand to signal the man behind Kate to not shot. Kate lets out a deep breath and closes her eyes for a moment while Sherlock types in the code. The safe makes a sound and it seems like the code was correct. Kate can hear John let out a breath too.  
"Thank you, Mr. Holmes. Open it, please. "  
Kate sits up a bit again and sees Sherlock looking briefly over his shoulder towards Irene while turning the handle of the safe.  
" Vatican cameos." Sherlock shouts.  
Kate throws herself on the ground and feels John landing half on top of her, betting he thought he needed to save her. But she very well knew what ‘Vatican cameos' means. Sherlock pulls open the safe and a gunshot kills the man behind John.  
Sherlock spins around and takes the gun from the American in front of him and punches him straight in the face.  
Kate gets into a crouching position and spins around, kicking the man behind her from his feet in the process. He hits the bottom hard and Kate uses that opportunity to take his gun and knock him out.  
Irene also managed to bring her man down by kicking him in the nuts with her elbow. He bends over and Irene gets up, takes his gun and hits him on the neck which brings the man to his knees.  
"Do you mind?" Sherlock asks her as she's pointing the gun at him.  
"Not at all." She grins and knocks him out.  
While she's distracted Sherlock reaches inside the safe and puts something in his pocket.  
"He's dead." John informs as he gets up. Waving his gun at the man that was hit by the gun from the safe.  
"Thank you." Irene smiles at Sherlock, still aiming her gun at the man she brought down. "You were very observant."  
"Observant?" John questions and turns towards her.  
"I'm flattered."  
"Don't be." Sherlock responses.  
"Flattered?" Kate glowers and slowly lets her gun sink.  
Sherlock and Irene start to stare at each other again.  
"There'll be more of them. They'll be keeping an eye on the building." Kate informs hurrying out of the room, directly followed by Sherlock.  
"We should call the police." John shouts hurrying after them.  
"Yes." Sherlock agrees.  
They step out the front door and Sherlock wants to lift his gun up but Kate is already shooting in the air before turning around and walking back inside.  
"On their way." Sherlock shrugs and heads after Kate.  
"For God's sake!" John swears.  
"Oh shut up. It's quick."

They return to the room and see Irene in front of the safe.  
"Check the rest of the house. See how they got in." Sherlock orders John.  
John heads off and Sherlock gets a phone out of his pocket. "Well, that's the knighthood in the bag. "  
"Ah. And that's mine." She holds out her hand but Sherlock ignores her and turns on the phone.  
Kate takes a look on the phone from his side at the lock screen. ‘I am _ _ _ _ locked.'.  
"All the photographs are on here, I presume." Sherlock states.  
"I have copies, of course."  
"No, you don't. You'll have permanently disabled any kind of uplink or connection. Unless the contents of this phone are provably unique, you wouldn't be able to sell them."  
"Who said I'm selling?"  
Sherlock looks down at the bodies on the ground. "Well, why would they be interested? Whatever's on the phone, it's clearly not just photographs."  
"That camera phone is my life, Mr. Holmes. I'd die before I let you take it." She takes a step closer and holds her hand out again. "It's my protection."  
"Sherlock!" They hear John calling from another room.  
"It was." Sherlock answers and holds the phone further away from her before leaving the room to find John.  
They find John in a bedroom with the woman that let them in earlier. She's unconscious on the floor.  
"Must have come in this way." John explains to Sherlock and points towards the bathroom.  
"Clearly." Sherlock disappears into the bathroom.  
"It's all right. She's just out cold." John assures Irene, referring to the woman on the ground.  
"Well, God knows she's used to that." Irene shrugs, walking towards her. "There's a back door. Better check it, Doctor Watson."  
John looks at Sherlock for approval as he comes out of the bathroom.  
He nods. "And take Kate with you."  
"Sure." John says and walks out of the room.  
Kate furrows her eyebrows and looks at Sherlock and then at Irene who's searching something in a drawer. She doesn't like the feeling of leaving Sherlock alone with her. She doesn't trust her, but Sherlock gives her another intensive stare and nod towards the door and she obeys.

John and Kate check the rest of the house but can't find anything.  
As they head back to the bedroom Irene is just walking in the bathroom and they see Sherlock lying on the ground.  
"Jesus. What are you doing?" Kate shouts and raises her gun at Irene while John drops on his knees besides Sherlock.  
"He'll sleep for a few hours." She chuckles and turns towards John. "Make sure he doesn't choke on his own vomit. It makes for a very unattractive corpse."  
She sits on the windowsill of the bathroom window, ready to climb out.  
John picks up a syringe from besides Sherlock. "What's this? What have you given him? Sherlock!"  
"He'll be fine." She sighs and rolls her eyes. "I've used it on loads of my friends."  
Kate growls and kneels down beside Sherlock, laying a hand on his cheek. "Sherlock, can you hear me?"  
"You know, I was wrong about him." Irene smirks. "He did know where to look."  
John stands up again to see her better. "For what? What are you talking about?"  
"The key code to my safe."  
"What was it?" Kate frowns and also gets up, taking a few steps towards her.  
She looks at Sherlock who's trying to roll over. "Shall I tell them?"  
"My measurements." She turns back to John and Kate before she lets herself fall out of the window, holding onto a robe.  
John hurries after her but she's gone and they can hear the police arriving.

Gladly it was Lestrade so they could save themselves most of the explaining.  
Sherlock is still switching between consciousness and unconsciousness.  
Currently, a paramedic is looking after him, but Sherlock tries to get up and walk over to John and Kate who are standing in the door of the bedroom, talking to Lestrade.  
"John is my doctor!" He mumbles like a drunk and pushes the paramedic away.  
"Hey!" Kate shouts at him like she caught a child doing something forbidden and hurries over to them.  
She helps the paramedic up. "I'm sorry. You better leave, we got this."  
"And Kate is my guardian!" Sherlock yells after him.  
As he leaves she turns towards Sherlock. "Can't you just stay unconscious?"  
"Nooooooo." Sherlock grins, sitting on the ground and swinging back and forth.  
Lestrade and John approach them in order to make room for other paramedics to carry the unconscious women out.  
"What's up with him?" Lestrade laughs.  
"He's been drugged." John explains.  
Kate crunches down on Sherlock's level and he grabs onto her left shoulder.  
"I'm your guardian?" She chuckles.  
"Angel." He corrects himself with a dumb grin.  
"Ok." Kate laughs with a shade of red on her face.  
"Lestrade! I won't take the case!" He shouts up at Lestrade so loud that Kate covers her ears and Lestrade and John jump in surprise.  
"Ok?" Lestrade giggles in confusion.  
"It was the father! His shoe size says that he killed the…the…who? Pudding." Sherlock turns back to Kate. "I really want some pudding now."  
Lestrade gets his phone out with a lough and starts to film. "This is too good!"  
Kate laughs and slaps Lestrade's leg. "Stop it."  
"No. I won't ever live that down."  
Sherlock keeps saying a bunch of shit and Lestrade's whole team seems to have a little get together in the bedroom since no one wants to miss this show.  
After some time Kate places her small hand on Sherlock's cheek which causes him to look at her. "Are you ok?"  
He nods and automatically leans into her touch. Kate smiles but takes her hand back.  
"Ok then let's get you out of here. Think you can walk?" She asks and he nods.  
"Great. John?" She turns looks up to him. "Can you help me, please?"  
When she turns around to Sherlock again, she can gladly turn her face away fast enough before Sherlock throws up on her.  
"I'm sorry." He whispers before falling straight back, hitting the bottom hard.  
"None taken." Kate wrinkles her nose in disgust and looks up to see Lestrade still filming. "I hate you."  
Lestrade just laughs, stops filming and chases his people out of the room.

Together they manage to get Sherlock back home. While John puts him in his bed Kate goes to take a shower.  
Later in the evening Kate decides to make the two of them some real dinner even tho she can't cook.  
"It's not that bad." John comments on the food.  
"Thank you." She laughs.  
They eat in silence for a moment.  
"So…Irene Adler. What a woman, mh?" Kate states and looks at John.  
"A bit extreme if you ask me." John responses.  
"I mean I get why she's a dominatrix. She's born to be one." Kate states and John nods. "Sherlock seemed to be enjoying it."  
"He's drugged and unconscious, Kate. I'm not so sure."  
She shrugs and looks up at John, then they start to laugh. This whole day is just one big weird dream.  
There's silence and John opens his mouth to say something but is interrupted by Sherlock calling his name from his bedroom.  
"He's all yours, darling." Kate smirks as if she's referring to their child and John leaves with a laugh.  
Kate listens to them talking while clearing the kitchen table and she hears Sherlock asking about Irene Adler.  
When John returns to the kitchen Kates gone and he hears her playing violin in her room.

The next morning Kate enters the living room to the sight of Sherlock and John sitting at the small table having breakfast. Mrs. Hudson is busy in the kitchen and Mycroft is standing in front of the fireplace, leaning on his umbrella.  
"Morning." Kate yawns and takes place on the opposite of Sherlock.  
"Good Morning, Kate!" Mycroft greets her before staring back at Sherlock who's reading the newspaper.  
"Morning!" John smiles at her as she steals a sandwich from his plate.  
Sherlock looks up from his paper and looks at Mycroft. "The photographs are perfectly safe."  
"In the hands of a fugitive sex worker." Mycroft mocks and Kate rolls her eyes.  
She should get paid to deal with this in the morning.  
"She's not interested in blackmail. She wants ... protection for some reason. I take it you've stood down the police investigation into the shooting at her house?"  
"How can we do anything while she has the photographs? Our hands are tied."  
"She'd applaud your choice of words."  
John and Kate smirk at each other but keep eating in silence.  
"You see how this works: That camera phone is her ‘Get out of jail free' card. You have to leave her alone. Treat her like royalty, Mycroft." Sherlock gives him a fake smile.  
"Though not the way she treats royalty." John jokes, turning towards Mycroft with a sarcastic grin.  
Kate nearly chokes on her foot and John has to clap her on the back and hands her a glass of water.  
Suddenly there's the sound of a female moaning coming from somewhere behind Kate and she nearly spits out the water she was drinking. "That wasn't me!"  
"What was that?" John turns towards Sherlock in confusion.  
"Text." Sherlock states casually.  
"But what was that noise?" Kate digs deeper.  
Sherlock just gets up and picks up his phone from his armchair and reads something while continuing the conversation with Mycroft. "Did you know there were other people after her too, Mycroft, before you sent John and me in there? CIA-trained killers, at an excellent guess."  
"Yes, that was nice." John agrees sarcastically and Sherlock sits down on his chair again.  
"Yeah, thanks for that, Mycroft." Kate mocks like a little kid.  
Mrs. Hudson comes out of the kitchen to bring Sherlock and Kate a plate of breakfast. "It's a disgrace, sending your little brother into danger like that. Family is all we have in the end, Mycroft Holmes."  
Kate gives her a thankful smile for the breakfast.  
"Oh, shut up, Mrs. Hudson." Mycroft groans in annoyance.  
All their head shoot towards Mycroft in union.  
Sherlock shouts. "MYCROFT!" while Kate's going with "HEY!" and John shouts out a simple "OI!"  
They all give him an angry look and Mycroft shifts around, clearly uncomfortable.  
"Apologies." Mycroft addresses Mrs. Hudson and forces a smile.  
"Thank you." She utters while leaving for the kitchen again.  
"Though, do in fact shut up." Sherlock tells her and Kate slaps his newspaper.  
Sherlock phone moans again and Mrs. Hudson turns around. "Oh. It's a bit rude, that noise, isn't it? "  
He checks his phone and ignores any comments again, before picking up the conversation with Mycroft once again. "There's nothing you can do and nothing she will do as far as I can see. "  
"I can put maximum surveillance on her."  
"Why bother? You can follow her on Twitter. I believe her user name is ‘TheWhipHand.'"  
"Yes. Most amusing." Mycroft tries to smile but ends up looking like he bit into a lemon.  
His phone rings and he gets it out of his pocket.  
He excuses himself before picking the call up and leaving for the corridor. "Hello?"

Kate stares at Sherlock. "Why does your phone make that noise?"  
"What noise?"  
"That noise. The one it just made." John joins her interrogation.  
"It's a text alert. It means I've got a text."  
"Hm…your texts don't usually make that noise." John notices.  
"Well, somebody got hold of the phone and apparently, as a joke, personalized their text alert noise. "  
"So every time they text you…" Kate's interrupted by another moan.  
"It would seem so." Sherlock says reading his test.  
Mrs. Hudson is muttering something from the kitchen.  
"I'm wondering who could have got hold of your phone, because it would have been in your coat, wouldn't it?" Kate states and John gives her an agreeing look.  
Sherlock hides behind his newspaper. "I'll leave you to your deductions."  
John grins but Kate just swallows hard.  
"We're not stupid, you know." John chuckles.  
"Where do you get that idea?"  
Mycroft walks back into the room right before hanging up. "Bond Air is go, that's decided. Check with the Coventry lot. Talk later. "  
Sherlock looks up to him. "What else does she have? Irene Adler. The Americans wouldn't be interested in her for a couple of compromising photographs. There's more." He stands up and walks towards Mycroft till they're face to face. "Much more. Something big is coming, isn't it?"  
"Irene Adler is no longer any concern of yours. From now on you will stay out of this." Mycroft orders.  
"Oh, will I?" Sherlock challenges.  
"Yes Sherlock, you will!"  
Sherlock turns away from him with a shrug to pick up his violin.  
"Now, if you'll excuse me, I have a long and arduous apology to make to a very old friend." Mycroft tells them as he walks towards the door.  
"Do give her my love." Sherlock states before starting to play the National Anthem / ‘God Save The Queen'.  
Mycroft just rolls his eyes and leave but Kate and John grin at each other.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Feedback?


	12. A Scandal In Belgravia 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> This chapter refers to the Events in S0E01 so I took Story and dialogue from the Episode and placed Kate in it.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NusxTNSPEdc

The next weeks pass really fast. Kate’s at work every second day and when she’s there to help with the cases it’s mostly small ones they can solve from the flat or some for Lestrade but he hasn’t much for them these days.  
Occasionally Kate brings something for Sherlock’s experiments home from the pathology and John rants about it. Neither Sherlock nor Kate seems to care tho.  
John’s still jobless and Kate lost count at how many women John has dated since she knows him. Not to judge but it’s starting to get pathetic.  
At least he doesn’t bring them home cause he’s afraid that Sherlock might scare them off immediately and Kate thinks he’s right.

They haven’t heard anything from Irene Adler ever since the day they met her.  
Well, at least not officially. Kate knows that she’s texting Sherlock and that it’s her messages that make the moaning noise.  
She’s been observing Sherlock whenever she heard a message arriving, but she never saw him reply to any of them and to be honest, Kate is glad about it. Maybe she would've admired Irene Adler for her power if she wasn’t all over Sherlock.  
And even if Kate wishes she wouldn’t know the reason for that thought, she started to figure some shit out over the past weeks. She’s not sure about anything but she can’t deny that she noticed some things.  
Things that she wished she didn’t notice.

Her and Sherlock have been alone at home for most of the weekends. Sometimes when they were talking or laughing about some stupid casual stuff it almost feels like they’re normal friends, but the next moment (when they’re playing Cluedo) she’s reminded that she’s thinking about the high functioning sociopath Sherlock Holmes who thinks that love is a social construct and a distraction.

It’s the start of December when Kate decorates the flat with Mrs. Hudson for Christmas and Sherlock sits in his armchair and tells her that he got news from the drug cartel that nearly caused them to drown.  
“Really?” Kate gasps in surprise cause they never talked about the case after that day.  
“Yes. They’re having a big get together on the day before Christmas apparently.”  
“Are we gonna go?” Kate exclaims a bit too excited.  
Sherlock smirks up at her. “Of cause we’re gonna go!”  
“This time we’ll take diving equipment.” Kate jokes and Sherlock laughs.  
Laughing, that is also something Sherlock’s been doing more lately and John’s confused. So is Kate to be honest.

John enters the flat not much later, coming back from another dinner date.  
He stares up to Kate who’s standing on the table to hang up a light string above the window. “Hello, this looks amazing!”  
“Thank you, John.” Kate grins and grabs Sherlock’s hand, which he’s offering without looking up from his newspaper, to climb down from the table.  
“By the way: Are we gonna have a Christmas get together or something?” John asks.  
“That would be lovely!” Mrs. Hudson exclaims.  
“What for?” Sherlock frowns and looks at them.  
“Sure! With whom?” Kate questions, completely ignoring Sherlock and rummages around in a box of Christmas decoration on the table.  
“The three of us and Mrs. Hudson, maybe I could ask Molly too?” John suggests with a smirk to Sherlock who just rolls his eyes.  
“Molly’s the pathologist that had my job right? I would love to meet her.”  
“I think you would like each other. She’s lovely.” John assures her.  
“A bit too lovely.” Sherlock throws in.  
“She has a huge crush on Sherlock.” John explains for Kate.  
“Oh.” Kate breaths.  
He turns to Sherlock. “But last time I spoke to her she mentioned a boyfriend so you should be safe now.”  
“I hope so for my sake. She’s lovely but dull.”  
“She became a pathologist somehow, so she can’t be that dull.” Kate defends her.  
“Well, she's annoying and dull to me."  
“Everyone is annoying and dull to you!” Kate turns around to him and throws her hands in the air.  
“Not everyone.” Sherlock looks up at her while cleaning his violin bow.  
Her breath catches in her throat and they stare at each other for a moment.  
Kate frowns and turns back to John before her face has the chance to get red. “Anyways. You can bring your girlfriend too. We would love to meet her!”  
“Would we?” Sherlock asks with a fake frown and a hidden grin.  
“We would.” She warns him.  
“Oh ok.” He smiles to himself and continues cleaning his violin bow.  
John stares at them interacting, opens his mouth to say something, but closes it again and thinks for a moment. “I will ask her, thanks.”  
“Nice.” Kate smiles at him and hands Mrs. Hudson more Christmas decoration for the kitchen. ”I’ll ask Greg too.”  
“Your boyfriend?” Sherlock surprisingly speaks up.  
“No! Greg Lestrade?” Kate snaps.  
“Ahhh!”  
“You really still don’t know his name?” Kate groans.  
Sherlock shrugs and picks up his violin to play something.  
“You two should play something on the violin together. On Christmas I mean. Just saying.” John suggests and sits down in his armchair.  
Kate looks at Sherlock. “I mean…I would, if you want to?”  
“Sure, but I choose the song.”  
“Cool.”It's quiet for a few moments until Kate speaks up again. "What about Mycroft?"  
“What about him?” Sherlock asks.  
Kate rolls her eyes. “Should we invite him on Christmas?”  
“No, why?”  
“Cause he’s your brother and he’s lonely, Sherlock.”  
“We got our parents a trip over Christmas to Christmas so we don’t have a have ‘happy’ family get together this year. I don’t think he’s interested.”  
“Oh my god. You have parents!” Kate exclaims with a big grin.  
“Sorry, what?”  
“You have parents. I never thought about that fact.”"Everyone has parents? What's your point?"  
“It’s just it’s weirdly enough to see you and Mycroft interact. I’m trying to picture you with your mom and dad. Oh…this is brilliant!”  
“Me too! I wonder what they’re like.”  
“Ok. Can you two talk about your fantasies elsewhere so I can think here in silence?” Sherlock mocks.

The three of them wake up the day before Christmas and go through the plan once again.  
Kate and Sherlock will play a rich investor couple and John will be their company shareholder that’s also interested in investing in the cartel. Sherlock pulled some strings to get them on the guest list. Once they’re in they’re gonna get involved into some conversations to see what information they can get. If it’s not helping the case they split and search for evidence to prove the drug traffic.Sadly they couldn't get a whole plan of the house to see where to escape or to look but Sherlock just shrugged that away and said: "Where would be the fun in that?".  
Sherlock’s contact made it possible to smuggle their guns in for them. They gave them to him yesterday. They just need to go pick them up at the soonest opportunity.

In the afternoon they start to get ready and Kate hears a knock on her door.  
“Come in?”  
The door opens and Sherlock peeks his head inside.  
He’s never been in her room or knocked at her door ever since she moved in, so she’s quite surprised and stares up at him from her bed.Sherlock takes in the room and how it has changed until he last saw it, before placing a box beside her on the bed.  
“What is this?” Kate looks at the box.  
“A dress for today.”  
“A dress?” She frowns up at him.  
“Yes, I just said.”  
“But why? I have dresses.”"We're supposed to be a rich couple. You don't own that kind of dresses."  
“Right.”  
“Yes.”  
Kate opens the box and takes out a beautiful black dress. “Holy, it’s really beautiful! I don’t even want to know how much it costs. I’ll pay you back!”  
(That’s the dress https://www.google.de/imgres?imgurl=https%3A%2F%2Fcdn.cliqueinc.com%2Fcache%2Fposts%2F209116%2Falexis-bledel-looked-chicer-than-ever-at-the-gilmore-girls-premiere-1986214-1479753213.700x0c.jpg&imgrefurl=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.whowhatwear.com%2Fgilmore-girls-premiere-alexis-bledel&docid=6t3NRD5g7a31VM&tbnid=uMXtAKHdxFcxTM%3A&vet=10ahUKEwiZ5uLi_oPiAhVrMewKHVGgCeUQMwg_KAIwAg..i&w=700&h=1053&bih=651&biw=1366&q=alexis%20bledel%20dress&ved=0ahUKEwiZ5uLi_oPiAhVrMewKHVGgCeUQMwg_KAIwAg&iact=mrc&uact=8)  
“No need.”  
She looks at Sherlock and gives him an honest smile. “Thank you, Sherlock.”  
He looks down.  
“I’m gonna change into it and get my makeup done.” Kate informs him. “I’ll meet you in the living room.”  
“Right!” He hurries out of the room.

Kate enters the living room and sees Sherlock and John already waiting in their suits.John's suit looks also quite new and perfectly fitting so she deducts that he also has a new expensive one only for this occasion. She looks over at Sherlock and despite the fact that she often sees him in flannels and suit-trousers she has to admit that he looks quite hot wearing a full suit.  
She clears her throat to get their attention and both men turn towards her. John stares at her with an open mouth and even Sherlock looks straddled for a moment.  
“You look beautiful, Kate.” John smiles and gives Sherlock a quick look before he turns to the door with a grin. “Congrats to the husband.”  
Kate walks up to Sherlock to straighten out his red tie.  
“Husband.” She breaths and looks up to his face and he swallows hard.  
“Wife.” He rasps and bends back a bit to pick something up from the table.  
Kate looks down to his hand and sees him holding out a little red purse towards her.  
The color fits Sherlock’s tie and her lipstick. She smiles and takes it, the size is just about right to fit her gun.  
John awkwardly clears his throat and opens the door as a sign to leave.

They even hired an expensive car with a driver, to get them to the place, in order to keep their fake identity up.  
When they arrive at the mansion, where the party is supposed to be happening, they can already see people in fancy dresses walking towards the front door. Everyone seems to be checked by security, just like they thought.  
The car comes to a halt directly in front of the door and a tall guy in a suit opens the door and offers Kate his hand. She accepts it with a kind smile while Sherlock gets out on the other side of the car.  
As she stands she straightens out her dress and Sherlock hurries around the car and offers her his arm.  
John gets out after Kate and follows them towards the entrance.  
As they reach the first security guard he asks them about their names.  
“William and Mary Taylor.” Sherlock announces.  
Kate grins to herself. They have had quite the discussion about their last name the other day and Kate wasn’t sure what Sherlock would pick in the end. Seems like he had to admit to himself that his last name has gotten too famous over the past few months.  
She liked playing his wife. Too much.  
The security guard looks through a list for a few seconds, scanning it for their names and for a short moment Kate is worried that the names didn’t make it on the list, but then he smiles at them. “Good evening Mr. and Mrs. Taylor. Please go ahead to our body and bag check.”  
Sherlock nods and let’s go of Kate to go through his body check and Kate walks up to a female security guard.  
As the female touches Kates body, she looks over her shoulder to check on John, who’s telling his name to the guard, but it seems like he also made it through cause he walks up after Sherlock.  
After the female guard takes a quick look into Kate’s purse, only to see a red lipstick, she’s free to go.  
Sherlock holds out his arm again. “Come Mary darling, let’s head inside. We meet Hamish there.”

They find themselves in a huge room full of chatting people. There’s some sort of pool or fountain in front of them, a bar to their right and music playing to their left.  
A young man steps up to them and offers them champagne on a tray. Both of them take a glass and thank the man before heading further into the room.  
"Toilet?" Sherlock suggests with a nod to his right where Kate can read a sign and nods.On the toilet, they pick up their guns from the hidden spot and when they leave they meet John in front of the toilets.  
“You ok?” Kate asks him and John nods. "Ok, I'd say while we wait for more people to arrive and talk to, we can try to blend in." Kate grins and swings one arm over John's shoulder and drags him to the bar.  
Sherlock just follows them and watches them order two drinks with a frown.  
John jokes about something he can’t hear and Kate laughs enthusiastically before eying Sherlock and laughing even more.  
“Are you sure you two aren’t the married couple?”  
“Aww William, no. Hamish would only be my affair.” She jokes.  
John laughs but Sherlock just stares at her.  
“No…” Kate gets up and hooks her arms behind Sherlock’s neck before she leans forward to whisper in his ear with a giggle. “I would never betray my husband, the famous Sherlock Holmes.”  
Surprised about herself she leans back a little flustered but Sherlock has his hands on her hips so she can’t sit back down again.

Suddenly the music dies down and a man steps onto a little stage with a microphone.  
“Dear colleagues, investors and friends. I thank you for coming here today and celebrate what we built up over the last year…”  
Sherlock takes Kate by the hand and leads her closer to the stage. John follows them.  
“Is that him? The boss?” Kate whispers to Sherlock.  
“I think so, yes.”  
He finishes his speech and Sherlock just gives John a short nod before taking another champagne from a tray and walking away with Kate.  
They join two other couples and while Kate keeps the wives busy with small talk about marriage and trying for kids, Sherlock talks to the husbands about business.  
After doing that about five or six times with different couples and Sherlock nearly blowing their cover three times they join John again who’s sweating.  
“What happened to you?” Kate frowns.  
“I had to dance with that old lady over there.” He points behind Kate and Sherlock and her turn around to see an old woman in a dress that reveals way too much for her age. “I think I have to marry her to get proper information from her, but no thanks.”  
Kate laughs.  
“Ok, we split then. You know the plan.” Sherlock states and let’s go of Kate’s hand to walk off.

Kate walks towards the women toilet cause she saw a back door saying ‘Private’ there earlier. After she checked if anyone is looking she slips through the door.  
She finds herself in a long corridor with several doors, behind the first one is a broom closet, and the other ones turn out to be bedrooms or living room like lounges.Behind the last door, Kate finds another huge hall like the one the festivity is happening in. She slowly steps inside and looks around. No ones in here and walks towards a huge stairway on the opposite of the room. Her heels echo through the room.  
On top of the stairs are three more rooms. The first one is another broom closet, the second is locked and the third one is a bedroom.  
Kate exhales and gets a hairclip out behind her ear and bends down in front of the second door to break it open. After a few seconds, it clicks and Kate pushes the heavy wooden door open.  
It’s dark in the office like room and Kate approaches the Computer and turns it on.  
“Shit.” Kate mutters and looks around on the table to find any clue for the password. That’s what she has Sherlock for, isn’t it?  
With a sigh her eyes land on a picture on the opposite wall. She gets up and takes a closer look.  
It seems to be the boss with his family. In the background is the Times Square and on the screen right behind them is an advert for the lion king musical on Broadway. Kate smiles and hurries back to the computer and types in “Lion King”. It works and she nearly laughs out loud but can stop herself by pressing her hand on her mouth.  
After looking through a few files she finds a delivery list with dates from the past but also future shipping dates. She quickly gets the ‘lipstick’, which is really a USB stick, out and puts it in the computer to drag the file on it.  
While the file is transferring she looks around in the drawers. Most of the stuff is useless but then Kate finds some files and opens them only to have her own face staring at her. “Shit?”  
She flicks through it and curses. They know way too much about her.  
The next file she picks up is about Sherlock and the other one about John. Shit!  
She has a short conflict of whether she takes them, destroys them or leaves them.  
Taking them would be too obvious cause they don’t fit in her bag.  
Destroying them would be too obvious.So she decides to leave them, put the USB stick back in her bag, turn the computer off and pushes the chair back to its place.  
When she leaves there is still no one around and she quietly closes the door and makes her way back down the stairs and through the hall.  
She has to find Sherlock and John and get out of here. They got enough information to bring them down and they know what their faces look like so if there’s a half capable person looking at the surveillance cameras they’re fucked.

The long corridor is also empty and Kate can hear loud music booming from the main hall. She's already reaching for the handle of the door that will lead her back there when suddenly a door behind her opens.  
She quickly turns around and reaches for her purse, but it’s only Sherlock leaving one of the rooms that Kate checked earlier.  
Kate lets out a breath. “Jesus Sherlock, you scared me.”  
“Kate.” He confirms more to himself, also a bit straddled.  
“I got what we need. Let’s find John and get out of here, I saw files of each of us. They know who we are and it’s only a matter of time till they find out that we’re here.”  
Sherlock nods and walks towards her when they hear footsteps echoing behind the last door where Kate just came from.  
“Shit.” She stares at Sherlock.  
Sherlock acts fast and drags Kate into a room that turns out to be the broom closet.  
But the person must’ve seen a part of Kate’s dress disappear in the room or something cause a man calls out “Hello? No one’s supposed to be back here!"  
Her breath quickens as the footsteps come closer. She tries to reach for her gun in her purse but there’s not enough space for her to move her arm, cause she’s stuck between a shelf and Sherlock’s chest.

“I’m sorry.” Sherlock whispers as the footsteps stop before the door.  
Kate wants to send Sherlock a panicked and confused look but is stopped by Sherlock pushing her even more against the shelf behind her and his lips on hers.  
Kate’s far too shocked to cope with anything that is happening an in the next moment the door is opened and light falls on them.  
“Excuse me!” The man snaps.  
Sherlock leans back and turns around and Kate just stares between Sherlock and the security guard in shock.  
“No one’s suppose to be back here.” The man looks at them with narrows eyes.  
“Oh…yeah I’m sorry, we were just looking for a private place.” Sherlock grins at him. “If you get what I mean.”  
He even winks at the man during his last statement and Kate has completely lost her usual confident and snappy behavior, otherwise she would’ve also acted it out.  
“I can see that. Just do it somewhere else. At home for instance.”  
“That, Mr. Is a very good idea! You should be paid more. What’s your name? I talk to your boss.”  
“Rafael.”  
He gently places a hand on Kates back and pushes her out of the room. “Lead the way, sweetheart.”

John walks up to them and she hears them talking but everything is happening so fast and next thing she knows is that they’re back in the car on their way to 221B and while John is celebrating their survival Sherlock and Kate don’t really talk at all.  
Finally Kate seems to wrap her head around what just happened.  
Sherlock Holmes kissed her.  
He really kissed her.  
And she liked it? She liked it very much to be honest. Too much.  
Kate didn’t think that Sherlock has ever kissed someone before. Why should he?  
But she has to admit that the kiss wasn’t that bad. Well, it wouldn’t have been if she would’ve kissed back and it would’ve lasted longer than 5 seconds.  
She looks over to Sherlock who’s staring out of the window.  
There’s a tiny hint of her lipstick on his face and deep down Kate likes that.  
Again: Too much.  
Hopefully John hasn’t seen it, but he’s sometimes too oblivious for his own good.

It was only acting to keep them safe, wasn’t it?  
Kate couldn’t think of any other explanation. Sherlock Holmes would never willingly kiss anyone, would he? Would he willingly kiss her? Kate Taylor?But then again…did he really had to kiss her? They could've just acted out that they had a make-out session in the broom closet together, messed their hair up and lipstick and all that. But Sherlock decided to go for it. Why?

When they get out of the car and Sherlock pays the driver John asks Kate if she’s ok and she just mutters something like “It was a close call, that’s all.” And pushes the purse with the stick in his chest and walks inside.  
She hears John turning to Sherlock. “What did you do, Sherlock?”  
“Leave it, John.” Sherlock mutters.

They don’t talk the whole next day till the guests start to arrive in the evening.  
It seems like they also silently agreed to not talk about the case until the holiday is over.  
John tried to talk to Kate and Sherlock what happened last night but they both blocked him off so Kate is happy to see other faces and practically jumps Greg in the arms when he arrives. “Merry Christmas, Greg. I’m so glad you made it.”  
“Woah, ok. Not even my wife was ever that happy that I’m home.” He jokes with a bright smile and checks out her red dress. “Merry Christmas and you look stunning, Kate.”  
“Thank you, Greg. You too.”  
He greets everyone that’s already there, including only John, Mrs. Hudson and Sherlock but only earns an angry stare from Sherlock.  
“Shall we play our duet now, Sherlock?” Kate addresses him for the first time today. Not everyone is here yet but Kate had no other idea how to stop Sherlock from staring at Greg like he’s planning his murder.  
“Sure.” Picks up his violin and stands up.  
Mrs. Hudson sits down in Sherlock’s armchair with a drink and Kate smiles at the fact that she’s allowed to.  
John hands Greg a drink and they watch them from the kitchen as Kate also picks up her violin.  
She looks at Sherlock who just nods and then they start to play ‘We Wish You a Merry Christmas’.  
“Lovely! Sherlock, Kate, that was lovely!” Mrs. Hudson exclaims happily after they finished.  
Greg whistles. “I didn’t even know you could play!”  
Kate and Sherlock both bow down for their audience.  
“Marvelous!” John agrees and hands Kate a drink once she set down her violin.  
“I wish you could have worn the antlers!” Mrs. Hudson states sadly.  
“Some things are best left to the imagination, Mrs. Hudson.” Sherlock replies and Kate laughs.  
Sherlock looks at her in surprise, but she just can’t stop laughing at the thought of Sherlock with antlers between his locks.  
John hands Mrs. Hudson a cup of tea, maybe because she’s been drinking since the afternoon and he tries to sober her up.Suddenly a woman steps up besides Kate and offers her and Sherlock biscuits on a tray. Right, John's girlfriend arrived during their play.  
“No thank you, Sarah.” Sherlock speaks before Kate can react.  
She gives him an angry look and wants to walk away but before she can, John throws his arm around her. “Oh, no, no, no, no, no. He’s not good with names.”  
“No, no, no, I can get this.” Sherlock clarifies and Kate smirks.  
Sarah, or not Sarah, puts the tray on the table and looks at Sherlock with crossed arms.  
“No, Sarah was the doctor…” Sherlock closes his eyes to think.  
“…and then there was the one with the spots.” Kate adds thoughtfully.  
“…and then the one with the nose.”  
“…and then?” She smirks up at Sherlock who also smirks back at her.  
“...who was after the boring teacher?”  
“Nobody.” John’s girlfriend deadpans.  
“Jeanette!” Kate and Sherlock exclaim in union.  
Kate holds her hand up for a high five.  
“Ah, process of elimination.” Sherlock chuckles and high fives her.  
Kate laughs, as John awkwardly leads Jeanette away from them, and looks at Sherlock. It’s like yesterday didn’t happen. Maybe it didn’t.  
They could keep going like this.

Then the door opens and Kate hears Sherlock curse under his breath.  
She looks to the door and sees a woman walk in with two bags, she gives them a shy smile. That must be Molly Hooper.  
“Hello, everyone. Sorry, hello.” She greets them. “Ehm, it said on the door just to come up.”  
John and Kate walk over to her to help her with the bags and everyone greets her back.  
“Oh, everybody's saying hello to each other. How wonderful.” Sherlock rolls his eyes and mutters mostly to himself, but Kate hears and gives him a warning look.  
She turns back to Molly and offers her her hand. “Hey, I’m Kate. We haven’t met yet but I’ve heard so much about you!”  
She shakes her hand. “Oh hey, you’re the new pathologist and flatmate, right? I’m Molly, but you already know that so…”  
John offers to take Molly’s coat. “Let me...”  
Once the coat slips of Molly’s shoulders an attractive black dress is revealed.  
“Holy Mary!” John pants.  
“Wow.” Lestrade gapes.  
Kate rolls her eyes, firstly because Lestrade tries too hard to act straight and second because what the boys told her about Molly hitting on Sherlock seems to be true. She’s single again then and trying a bit too hard. But she won’t let that ruin the chance of a friendship with Molly. They already have two things in common.  
They work in the pathology and they would like to be kissed by Sherlock.  
“Having Christmas drinkies, then?” Molly’s voice wakes Kate from her thoughts.  
“No stopping them, apparently.” Sherlock mocks as he sits down at the table to check on John’s laptop without even looking at Molly.  
“It’s the one day of the year where the boys have to be nice to me, so it’s almost worth it!” Mrs. Hudson giggles.  
“Have a seat.” John offers her.  
“John?” Sherlock calls him.  
John walks over to him and looks on the Laptop over Sherlock's shoulder. "Mh?”  
Kate sits down on the edge of Sherlock’s armchair to make sure that Mrs. Hudson really drinks the tea from now on, while Lestrade goes to get Molly a drink.  
“The counter on your blog: still says one thousand eight hundred and ninety-five," Sherlock informs John.  
“Ooh, no!” John cries out pulls a fake sad face.  
“Christmas is canceled!” Kate adds with a giggle. Maybe she should also consider drinking tea.  
“And you’ve got a photograph of me wearing that hat!” Sherlock notices angrily.  
“People like the hat.” John walks away.  
“No, they don't.” Sherlock looks after him and then at Kate. “What people?”  
Kate shrugs. “I think it’s cute.”  
Sherlock frowns at her over his shoulder before turning back to the laptop screen.

“How’s the hip?" Molly asks towards Mrs. Hudson and breaks the awkward silence.  
“Ooh, it’s atrocious, but thanks for asking.” Mrs. Hudson responses.  
“I’ve seen much worse, but then I do post-mortems.“  
The awkward silence returns, but Kate really wants to laugh. Maybe it’s a joke only pathologists understand.  
“Oh, God. Sorry.” Molly stutters embarrassed.  
"Don't make jokes, Molly." Sherlock addresses her the first time since she arrived and also looks at her the first time since she revealed her dress, but clearly, he doesn't care.  
“No. Sorry.” She utters again and Lestrade hands her a glass of wine. “Thank you. I wasn’t expecting to see you. I thought you were gonna be in Dorset for Christmas.”  
“That’s first thing in the morning, me and the wife. We’re back together. It’s all sorted.” Lestrade explains with a grin and Kate rolls her eyes again and lets her head fall back.  
“No, she’s sleeping with a P.E. teacher.” Sherlock states without looking up from the Laptop.  
Lestrade still grins cause he’s maybe in shock. The awkward silence returns once again and is only broken by Kate slapping Sherlock on the arm. “Sherlock!”  
“And John. I hear you’re off to your sister’s, is that right?” Molly leads the conversation on.  
“Yeah.” John agrees.  
“Ah yeah, I nearly forgot about that. Even if Sherlock was complaining about it the whole past week.” Kate throws in but Sherlock raises an eyebrow at her. “...’saying’.”  
Molly gives them an awkward smile and Lestrade finally got what Sherlock just said and turns around to walk in the kitchen and pours himself another drink.  
“First time ever, she’s cleaned up her act. She’s off the booze.” John explains.  
“Nope.” Sherlock shoots, still fixed on the laptop.  
“Shut up, Sherlock!” John snaps.  
Sherlock turns to Molly. “I see and heard you’ve got a new boyfriend, Molly, and you’re serious about him. “  
“Sorry, what?”  
“In fact, you’re seeing him this very night and giving him a gift.”  
“Take a day off.” Kate groans and John rolls his eyes.  
“Shut up and have a drink.” Lestrade declares and places a glass in front of Sherlock.  
“Oh, come on. Surely you’ve all seen the present at the top of the bag – perfectly wrapped with a bow. All the others are slapdash at best.” Sherlock walks towards the bag of presents Molly brought with her. “It’s for someone special, then.“  
He picks up the present he’s talking about. “The shade of red echoes her lipstick – either an unconscious association or one that she’s deliberately trying to encourage. Either way, Miss Hooper has looove on her mind. The fact that she’s serious about him is clear from the fact she’s giving him a gift at all.”  
“Sherlock!” Kate warns, cause she has a bad thought where this might be going.  
“That would suggest long-term hopes, however forlorn; and that she’s seeing him tonight is evident from her make-up and what she’s wearing.” He smiles at the others. “Obviously trying to compensate for the size of her mouth and breasts ...”  
He turns over the name tag and just stares at it with big eyes.  
Molly gasps. “You always say such horrible things. Every time. Always. Always.”  
She’s clearly fighting her tears and Sherlock turns around. His eyes land on Kate’s angry glare and he turns around to Molly again.  
“I am sorry. Forgive me.“ Sherlock steps closer to Molly and John stares at him in confusion.  
“Merry Christmas, Molly Hooper." He leans down and kisses Molly on the cheek and Kate's mouth falls open. She wasn't expecting that. John's also shocked.  
As he leans back there’s a moan but it’s not Molly. Kate recognizes that moan and rolls her eyes before she starts to look around for Sherlock’s phone.  
“No! That wasn’t...I–I didn’t...” Molly stutters.  
“No, it was me.” Sherlock sighs.  
“My God, really?!” Lestrade asks in surprise.  
“What?!“ Molly gasps.  
Sherlock rolls his eyes and gets his phone out of his pocket. “My phone.”  
“Fifty-seven?” John half-asks.  
“Sorry, what?” Sherlock questions, looking down on his phone.  
“Fifty-seven of those texts, the ones I’ve heard.”"I'm home more often than you. I've heard Eighty-Nine." Kate adds.  
“Thrilling that you’ve been counting.” He mutters and walks over to the mantelpiece and picks up a present.  
Kate frowns. Who put that there? She didn’t see it when she cleaned up this morning.  
“What is that? Who’s it from?” She asks a bit overprotective.  
Sherlock just stares at it for a moment before walking away. “Excuse me.”  
“What – what’s up, Sherlock?” John also asks with worry in his voice.  
“I said excuse me.” Sherlock walks towards his room.  
“Do you ever reply?” John shouts after him."No, he doesn't. At least I never saw him and on my off days and on the weekend we hang out together all day so…" Kate shrugs.  
John looks at her and nods his head towards Sherlock’s room.  
With a noisy exhale she gets up and walks to Sherlock's door. She has never been in there, as she notices now.  
The door is only ajar and Kate pushes it open to see Sherlock sitting on the edge of his bed in his dark room.  
He’s on his phone and she hears him say. ”I think you’re going to find Irene Adler tonight.”  
Her breath catches in her throat. That name makes her head spin. How could she forget her?  
“No, I mean you’re going to find her dead.” Sherlock continues and Kate frowns.  
He hangs up and Kate clears her throat. “You okay?”  
“Yes.” He pushes the door close and Kate stares at the wood.  
She stands there for a few seconds in shock that Sherlock just closed the door right in her face before Sherlock steps out again and nearly bumps into her.  
They stare at each other.Kate really wants to kiss those lips again.  
Laughter from the living room wakes them from their trance.  
“Irene is dead?” Kate chokes out.  
“Not yet. We might have to wait a bit.” Sherlock pushes past her.

They return to the living room and Sherlock sits down on the chair by the table and Kate takes place on the armrest of Sherlock’s armchair again.  
Molly gives them a nervous smile. Maybe Kate looks just as desperate as her by now but doesn’t know.  
“Presents?” John suggests with a big grin. Maybe he also had a bit too many drinks by now.  
Kate goes to her room to get her bag of presents and so does John.  
They all exchange presents and as its John’s turn to give Kate her present he gets up and explains that he bought something together with Sherlock. Both men leave to get if from downstairs and Kate is worried. Mrs. Hudson just gives her a knowing smile.  
They return with an armchair and Kate gasps, hands Mrs. Hudson her wine glass and hurries over to them. “No way!”  
“We thought you finally need your own. It was Sherlock’s idea actually.” John chuckled as they place the armchair right between the other two, in front of the fireplace. He fits them perfectly.  
“You really earned it by now.” Sherlock smiles.  
This means more to Kate than she expected and she covers her mouth to stop herself from crying.  
“Thank you, boys!” She drags John into a hug.  
When she turns to Sherlock she hesitates, but tells her anxiety to fuck herself and hugs him tightly.  
He really hugs back and she tries to savor as much of this moment as she can and buries her face in his neck and whispers. “Thank you!”  
His phone rings, the normal phone ring gladly, and he pushes her away by her hips. He takes the call with one hand and leaves the other one on her hip.  
Kate thinks that he isn’t doing it on purpose and doesn’t know it that means it’s good or bad but Molly’s grimace tells her that she shouldn’t be enjoying this now and she steps back to examine the armchair further.  
“It’s really beautiful.” She tells John as Sherlock leaves to have his phone call in the kitchen. From what she can tell it was Mycroft.  
John explains where they got it and that they hid it in Mrs. Hudson’s flat when Sherlock returns.  
“We need to go to the pathology.” He tells Kate.  
“It’s Christmas Eve, Sherlock. Can’t that wait till tomorrow?” John groans.  
“No.” He walks off to get his coat.  
Kate sighs and gets up from her armchair."I can come if you want." Molly offers.  
“No!” Sherlock and Kate nearly shout in union, way too fast and Molly jumps a bit. "Sorry, it's just. You don't have the authorization to be there anymore.” Kate tries to explain.  
Even if she doesn’t want to be alone with Sherlock at the moment she doesn’t want to ruin Christmas for the others and insists on John staying in 221B.

After a silent car ride, they arrive at St Bartholomew's Hospital.  
Mycroft is already waiting for them in the basement of the building, where the pathology is.  
“Sherlock. Kate.” He greets them.  
“Merry Christmas!” Kate tells him with a sarcastic undertone.  
“Merry Christmas.” Mycroft responses emotionless.  
“Just give me a minute.” Kate tells the two men as she pulls her Lab coat over and opens the pathology door.She examines the corpse for some time before she lets them in.  
“The face is a bit, sort of, bashed up, so it might be a bit difficult.” She removes the sheet so they can see her face.  
“That’s her, isn’t it?” Mycroft questions.  
“I mean I met her once and am not sure.”  
“Show me the rest of her." Sherlock just states and Kate obeys with an unhappy face.  
Sherlock looks up and down her body. “That’s her.”  
He rushes out of the pathology and Mycroft follows him. “Thank you, Miss Taylor.”  
Kate puts the sheets over Irene’s corpse again before following them out.  
“Just the one.” Mycroft offers Sherlock a cigarette when she joins them.  
“Why?” Sherlock asks him.  
“Merry Christmas.”  
Sherlock takes the cigarette and Kate just watches the scene unfold.  
“Smoking indoors, isn’t there one of those...one of those law things?” Sherlock speaks while Mycroft lights his cigarette for him.  
“We’re in a morgue. There’s only so much damage you can do.“  
Sherlock takes a deep drag and blows out the smoke again.  
“How did you know she was dead?” Mycroft also offers Kate a cigarette but she shakes her head.  
“She had an item in her possession, one she said her life depended on. She chose to give it up.” He explains at takes another drag of the cigarette.  
The phone.  
“Where is this item now?”  
There’s the sound of someone crying and they turn around to see a family on the other side of a glass door at the end of the floor. It looks like they’re crying over someone that died. Kate swallows hard.  
“Look at them. They all care so much.” Sherlock turns to Mycroft. ”Do you ever wonder if there’s something wrong with us?“  
Kate huffs and Sherlock looks at her with a raised eyebrow for a moment.  
“All lives end. All hearts are broken.” Mycroft looks at Sherlock and even for a tiny second at Kate. “Caring is not an advantage, Sherlock.”  
Kate wants to say something but Sherlock breaths out smoke again before looking at the cigarette in disgust. “This is low tar.”  
“Well,” Mycroft exhales after a pause. “…you barely knew her.”  
Sherlock just huffs and walks away. “Merry Christmas, Mycroft.”  
“And a happy New Year.” Mycroft shouts after him.  
Kate doesn’t move to walk after him, even if he’s already out the door.  
“You know you could’ve celebrated Christmas with us. You can still come if you want?”  
“I know you asked like ten times.” He tells before calling someone with his phone. “He’s on his way. Have you found anything?”  
“Who’s that?” Kate asks and Mycroft puts the phone on speaker.  
“No. Did he take the cigarette?” John’s voice asks.  
“Yes.” Mycroft answers.  
“Shit.” He curses and talks quieter to someone else. “He’s coming. Ten minutes.“  
“There’s nothing in the bedroom.” They hear Mrs. Hudson’s voice in the background.  
“Looks like he’s clean. We’ve tried all the usual places. Are you sure tonight’s a danger night?”  
“No, but then I never am. You have to stay with him, John.“  
“I’ve got plans. Kate is here. Mycroft…”  
Mycroft hangs up.  
“What is that all about? It was just a cigarette. I mean yeah smoking is disgusting but…” Kate starts to rant.  
“Sherlock was an addict.”  
“What? I didn’t know…I mean I’m not surprised. Why didn’t you tell me? I would’ve spied for you on that!”  
“Stay with him tonight. John is a doctor but if he thinks his plans are more important than his friend then a pathologist will do.”  
“I see what I can do. Sherlock and I are having some troubles at the moment.” Kate shouts hurrying after Sherlock. “Happy new year!”  
Sherlock is already waiting in a cab when Kate joins him. “Are you finally done catching up with my brother?”  
“I just offered to spend the rest of Christmas Eve with us, but of cause he refused. Stubborn Holmes boys.”  
Sherlock chuckles and they drive back to 221B.

When they return John is sitting in his armchair, reading a book.  
“Oh, hi.” He looks up at them.  
Sherlock’s eyes roam through the room.  
“You okay?” John asks him.  
After a few seconds Sherlock walks off to his room. “Hope you didn’t mess up my sock index this time.“  
The door to his room slams shut and Kate gives John an angry look. “Why didn’t you tell me that he was an addict?”  
“I don’t know, sorry.” John admits.  
Sherlock starts playing violin and John sighs.  
“I got this, you can go fulfill your plans.” Kate places her scarf and coat on her armchair.  
“There’s no girlfriend anymore anyways.”  
“Oh, I’m sorry John.” Kate tells him and picks up her violin, ready to head after Sherlock. "I hope you have earplugs to sleep."

Kate carefully opens the door to Sherlock’s room. He’s sitting on his bed and plays but stops when she enters.  
“Do you mind if I play with you? Let all that Christmas stress out, you know?” She lies and she knows that Sherlock sees right through her.  
But he doesn’t care cause he nods, scoots over on his bed to make room for her and places the music stand between them.  
Kate sits down and takes in the room for the first time, now that she sees it in light.  
She didn’t know what to expect but the room is cleaner than the rest of the flat would let on.  
After listening to Sherlock for some time she joins in, it’s one of her favorite songs so she knows it by heart.  
They play all night, well, until Kate passes out on Sherlock's bed.When she wakes up she doesn't know where she is at first but then she recognizes Sherlock's room. Someone took her shoes off and pulled the blanket over her. She can hear Sherlock playing in the living room, he must've moved to let her sleep.

Since Kate is off work over the holidays they do this all day and all night for the next few days. Playing the violin.  
It’s easier than Kate thought cause they don’t talk much and spending time with him in silence and focusing on something else is definitely something she can do.  
When playing all the songs they know got too boring they started to compose their own songs.  
He’s playing to get over the loss of Irene Adler and Kate’s playing to distract herself from the fact that she’s falling in love with Sherlock Holmes while John is off running after his Sarah’s and Jeanette’s.  
Most nights Kate passes out in Sherlock’s bed and wakes up alone to join him playing in the living room again.Except for one night when Sherlock must’ve also passed out from staying up the previous nights cause his face is the first thing Kate sees when she wakes up.  
“Kate?” He shakes her and she notices that she's covered in sweat.  
“Sherlock?” She asks in confusion and sits up, breathing heavily.  
“You were having a nightmare.”  
“Oh.” She frowns and tries to remember.  
“It happens nearly every night but this time it was really bad, it woke me up and I decided to wake you.”  
“Sorry…and thanks.” She pants and pushes her hair out of her face.  
“Are you ok? You said my name.”  
Kate remembers the dream now. “Yeah. It’s just a dream. About the time we nearly drowned. Sorry I woke you up, I’ll go to my room.”  
“You can stay if that makes you feel safer.” Sherlock utters and Kate can see him frown at his own statement in the dim light of the lamp on Sherlock’s nightstand.  
“Thank you.” She whispers and lays back down.

The next morning Sherlock is playing in the living room again and Kate joins him lazily hanging over her armchair.  
John walks in and watches the scene.  
“Change that last tone to a C.” Kate yawns.  
Sherlock writes something on a sheet of notes.  
Mrs. Hudson comes in and puts away Sherlock’s untouched breakfast. “Lovely tune, Sherlock. Haven’t heard that one before.“  
“You composing?” John asks them as he puts his jacket on.  
Kate nods with another yawn. “We got bored of playing the same songs over and over again.”  
“Helps me to think.” Sherlock adds and turns to look out of the window and plays what he just changed.  
“What are you thinking about?” John asks.  
Sherlock spins around. “The counter on your blog is still stuck at one thousand eight hundred and ninety-five.“  
“Yeah, it’s faulty. Can’t seem to fix it.”  
“Faulty…” Sherlock gets out his phone. “Or you’ve been hacked and it’s a message.”  
He types something and Kate recognizes Irene Adler’s phone and frowns.  
“Hmm?” John hums.  
“Just faulty.” Sherlock sighs and puts the phone away to keep playing the violin again.  
“Right. Well, I’m going out for a bit.”  
“I take a quick walk to the shop.” Kate decides and throws on her goat. Her sleeping leggings will do for the shop down the street.  
Sherlock doesn't say anything. It will be the first time alone, except when Kate was asleep, for days.  
John stops in front of the stairs and whispers to her and Mrs. Hudson. “Listen: has he ever had any kind of...girlfriend, boyfriend, a relationship, ever?”  
Mrs. Hudson shrugs. “I don’t know.”  
Kate gulps. She doesn’t think so. Does John think that Irene is the closest thing Sherlock ever had to a girlfriend? Then what the hell is Kate?  
“How can we not know?” John whisper jells frustrated.  
Mrs. Hudson looks over to Sherlock. ”He’s Sherlock. How will we ever know what goes on in that funny old head? “  
John and Kate smile sadly.  
“Right. See ya.“ John tells her and the two of them leave.

“John?” A woman in front of the house calls out to them.  
“Yeah.” John answers as he turns towards her.  
She smirks at him. ”Hello.“  
She’s quite attractive and focusses on John while Kate frowns.  
“Hello!" John exclaims with a sudden interest in the women’s appearance and Kate rolls her eyes.  
“So, any plans for New Year tonight?” She asks him seductively.  
“Eh…, nothing fixed. Nothing I couldn’t heartlessly abandon. You have any ideas?”  
She looks at a car beside them. “One.”  
John groans and Kate rolls her eyes.  
“You know, Mycroft could just phone me, if he didn’t have this bloody stupid power complex.” John mutters.  
“Am I also suppose to come?” Kate questions and the woman nods.

They drive to an empty factory and the woman leads them inside.  
“Couldn’t we just go to a café? Sherlock doesn’t follow me everywhere.” John asks, still pissed.  
“Through there.” She waves in another corridor.  
They enter a huge storage hall and Kate starts to shout. “We’re writing sad music all day and night; He doesn’t eat; barely talks – only to correct the television.”  
“I’d say he was heartbroken but, ehm, well, he’s Sherlock. He does all that any…” John joins her but is stopped midsentence by the appearance of Irene Adler. Dressed this time.  
“Hello, Doctor Watson. Kate.”  
She stops in a safe distance from them. They just stare at each other in silence for a moment.  
“Tell him you’re alive.” John whispers.  
Irene shakes her head. “He’d come after me.”  
“I’ll come after you if you don’t.” Kate threatens her.  
“Mh, I believe you.” She chuckles.  
“You were dead on a slab. It was definitely you.” Kate declares angrily.  
She’s not even sure if she’s angry about the fact that she keeps from Sherlock that she’s still alive or that she’s not dead in general.  
“DNA tests are only as good as the records you keep.”  
“And I bet you know the record-keeper.” John asks.  
“I know what he likes, and I needed to disappear.”  
“Then how come I can see you, and I don’t even want to?” Kate growls.  
“Look, I made a mistake. I sent something to Sherlock for safe-keeping and now I need it back, so I need your help.”  
“No.” John shakes his head.  
Kate huffs in disbelieve. “Fuck you.”  
“It’s for his own safety.”  
“I’ll keep him safe.” Kate assures her. “I’m his guardian.”  
“So is this: tell him you’re alive.” John demands.  
“I can’t.”  
“Fine.” John breaths heavily. “I’ll tell him, and I still won’t help you.”  
John turns around to leave.  
“What do I say?” Irene asks.  
“What do you normally say?” Kate shouts. “You’ve texted him a lot.”  
“Just the usual stuff.” She shrugs.  
“There is no ‘usual’ in this case.” John rolls his eyes.  
Irene looks at her phone and starts reading. “’Good morning’; ‘I like your funny hat’; ‘I’m sad tonight. Let’s have dinner’; ’You looked sexy on ‘Crime watch.’ Let’s have dinner’; ‘I’m not hungry, let’s have dinner’.”  
John and Kate stare at her in disbelieve.  
“You...flirted with Sherlock Holmes?!” John frowns.  
“At him. He never replies.” Irene states and Kate smirks.  
“No, Sherlock always replies – to everything. He’s Mr. Punchline. He will outlive God trying to have the last word.” John snaps and Kate wants to laugh.  
“Does that make me special?” Irene smirks.  
“…I don’t know. Maybe.” John sighs.  
“No.” Kate snaps.  
“Are you jealous?” She replies to both of them in a challenging tone.  
“We’re not a couple.” Kate answers.  
“Yes, you are.” She sighs and types on her phone before showing it to them before sending it. “There…’I’m not dead. Let’s have dinner.’”  
“Who ... who the hell knows about Sherlock Holmes, but – for the record – if anyone out there still cares, I’m not actually gay.” John growls.  
“Well, I am.”  
“Me too.” Kate mocks back and they stare at each other.  
“Look at us both.” Irene smirks at her and wants to add something but is cut off by the sound of a moan. The moan Sherlock phone makes when he gets a text from Irene.They all freeze before they hear footsteps walking away.  
“Shit!” Kate breaths and starts to walk towards Irene because the sound came somewhere from behind her.  
Irene holds out a hand to stop her. “I don’t think so, do you?”  
Kate stops and turns around to John in despair. 

The car drives them back to 221B. They don’t talk.  
When they arrive they see a handwritten note on the front door.  
‘Crime in progress. Please disturb.’  
Kate gives John a look before they both hurry up the stairs.  
“What’s going on?” Kate asks the seconds they enter the living room.  
John and her stop and stare at the American that attacked them at Irene Adler’s house. He's tied to a chair and has duct tape over his mouth. His nose seems to be broken, cause blood is running down his face.  
Mrs. Hudson is sitting on the couch and Sherlock is in a chair beside the door, pointing Kate's gun at him.  
“Jeez. What the hell is happening?” John gasps.  
“Mrs. Hudson’s been attacked by an American. I’m restoring balance to the universe.” Sherlock explains and after the first part Kate and John already hurry over to Mrs. Hudson.  
“Oh, Mrs. Hudson, my God.” Kate panics, the old woman means more to her than she would’ve ever thought.  
“Are you all right?” John asks checking her wounds like the doctor he is.  
“Jesus, what have they done to you?” Kate growls and looks at the American.  
Mrs. Hudson starts to cry and hides her face behind her hands. “Oh, I’m just being so silly.”  
“No, no.” John calms her down and pulls her in his side.  
Kate turns to Sherlock and roams her eyes over him with a worried expression. “Are you ok?”  
He nods and hands her the gun while he lifts his phone to his ear.  
“Downstairs. Take her downstairs and look after her.” He tells John.  
John does as he’s told and helps Mrs. Hudson to walk to her flat. “All right, it’s all right. I’ll have a look at that.“  
“I’m fine, I’m fine.” She assures him, still in tears.  
“Are you gonna tell me what’s going on?” Kate asks, pointing the gun at the American.  
“I expect so. Later.”  
Kate fixes her eyes on the American who just gives her an angry stare.  
“Lestrade. We’ve had a break-in at Baker Street. Send your least irritating officers and an ambulance.” Sherlock talks to the phone and stares at the American. “Oh, no-no-no-no-no, we’re fine. No, it’s the, uh, it’s the burglar. He’s got himself rather badly injured. Oh, a few broken ribs, fractured skull ... suspected punctured lung. He fell out of a window.”  
Kate looks over at Sherlock, who places the phone on the table and rolls his shirtsleeves up, with a grin.  
No one hurts Mrs. Hudson and gets away with it.After punching him a few times they, in fact, throw him out of the window…maybe more than once since the police take their time to get to them.

It’s already dark when the ambulance takes the American away and Sherlock talks to Lestrade.  
John and Kate sit in Mrs. Hudson’s small kitchen when Sherlock joins them again.  
“She’ll have to sleep upstairs in our flat tonight. We need to look after her.” Kate suggests as she’s cleaning the American’s blood off her hand.  
“No.” Mrs. Hudson whines.  
“Of course, but she’s fine.” Sherlock answers and checks the fridge.  
“No, she’s not. Look at her.” Kate declares and gestures at the state of Mrs. Hudson.  
“She’s got to take some time away from Baker Street. She can go and stay with her sister. Doctor’s orders.” John says.  
Sherlock kicks the fridge shut and has a cake in his hand of which he takes a bite. “Don’t be absurd.“  
“She’s in shock, for God’s sake, and all over some bloody stupid camera phone.” Kate snaps.  
“Where is it, anyway?“ John wonders.  
“Safest place I know.” Sherlock muffles through his full mouth.  
Mrs. Hudson grabs in her décolleté with a laugh. “You left it in the pocket of your second-best dressing gown, you clot. I managed to sneak it out when they thought I was having a cry.“  
Sherlock takes it from her and throws it in the air before putting it in his jacket. “Thank you.“  
“Shame on you, John Watson.” Sherlock turns to John.  
“Shame on me?!”  
“Mrs. Hudson leave Baker Street?” He lays an arm around Mrs. Hudson’s shoulder and pulls her in his side. “England would fall.”  
She places her hand on his and chuckles. Kate just grins at both of them.

They go back upstairs once Mrs. Hudson assured them that she’s ok to be alone.  
“Where is it now?” Kate asks when she returns from the bathroom and Sherlock picks up his violin again.  
“Where no-one will look.”  
She smirks. “Whatever’s on that phone is more than just pictures.“  
“Yes, it is.” He checks the tuning of his violin.  
“So, she’s alive then. How are we feeling about that?” John asks when he enters the room.  
Sherlock begins to play the song they're writing again and Kate steps up and takes the violin out of his hands. “No, no, no. Today it’s New Year Eve. You’ve done enough grieving now, she’s alive. Tonight we go out! We have two hours left till midnight.”  
John gives her an unsure look.  
“Come on! I just change into a dress real quick. We’re going!” She says sternly and both men just look at each other as she walks off.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Feedback?  
> Keeps me motivated. <3


End file.
